reverse the rainbow
by Broken Elsewhere
Summary: When a baby riding a kangaroo destroys her front door and declares that he will train her to be a mafia boss TO THE EXTREME, Luce's ordinary, boring life turns upside down. AU where the Arcoabeno and Vongola switch places.
1. Target 1: The Home Tutor

**disclaimer: **Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belongs to Akira Amano. I own nothing except this story.

**note: **I know it's totally crazy to write a story starring a character that has so few appearances and barely any personality whatsoever, but bear with me. I'm trying my best to expand on what is known about her personality, as well as what I feel she might have been like.  
**note2:** A lot of characters are going to be switching around and their ages and occupations changing, but their personalities will remain intact. Only one character has been drastically changed, and he only appears once.  
**note3: **After I finishedreading KHR, I thought suddenly "wouldn't it be interesting if the Arcobaleno took the Vongola's place and vice-versa?" And here we are. Please enjoy.

* * *

**Target 1: The Home Tutor **or **A Baby, A Kangaroo and An Ordinary High School Student **

* * *

In a classroom of Namimori Middle School, a girl was quietly cleaning up. She had sky blue eyes and long dark blue tied at the nape of her neck. Strangely, she had a flower shaped birthmark underneath her left eye, but otherwise, she seemed a normal third year student. Outside the grounds were alive and loud with students, but inside the dimly lit room there was a kind of peace. Once or twice, someone she knew would pass by, and she'd stop and wave, but they rarely ever noticed her, and kept on walking.

Her hand dropped to her side, but she didn't frown. Didn't cry. Didn't complain.

_It isn't their fault they don't see me…_

She had always known that she was a thoroughly unremarkable person, someone so painfully average and ordinary that it was no surprise that nobody paid any attention to her. Luce winced a little as she remembered all her attempts at the things she wished she could be good at. She failed and excelled at nothing. She was talented at nothing. She was neither stellar enough to be praised for anything nor terrible enough to be mocked and criticized. If one looked for the word 'average' in the dictionary, there would probably have been a picture of her (although probably not, because finding her picture in the dictionary meant that people recognized her existence).

The student shook her head, trying to clear away those thoughts, and placed the broom back in the cupboard. She glimpsed a corner of the sky from the window, the sun carving up the sky into blue, pink, red and gold, and sighed a little. Who wouldn't want to be fly up there? She could almost envy the sky that stretched out further than the eye could see, never lonely with the storms and clouds and rain, lightning, mist and sun to keep it company. Never forgotten.

_If only…_

"Ah, Luce Nero, stop being gloomy," she said to herself, trying to cheer herself up, "You're just having a bad day!"

This wasn't true, and Luce knew it. She had been having 'bad days' for years now, and her last year at Namimori wasn't starting off any better. She had been completely ignored when they played volleyball during P.E., because there was always somebody better, more appealing, more phenomenal and Luce couldn't compare at all. She hadn't even been allowed to touch the ball. Even a little shrimpy kid that everyone nicknamed 'Tuna' had ended up handling the ball (getting hit in the face).

Her tests results remained dead center in a class of failures and geniuses, no matter how hard she studied, meaning the teachers didn't really care about her. She almost wished she would fail, just so that somebody would notice her. It had reached a point where half the class had started when the class representative said it was Luce's turn to clean up, as though they had only just remembered that they had a classmate by that name.

Luce's thin shoulders slumped, and she felt more insignificant than ever. At that moment, a familiar voice carried on the wind caught her ear, and her heart skipped a beat. On the grounds below, a tall, rail-thin third year stood talking to a pink haired classmate, his spiky black hair covered by a black fedora edged with yellow – against school rules, not that rules could stop him. She was too far to see his dark eyes or impossibly curly sideburns, but Luce fancied that she could. She wondered if she was smiling like an idiot, face pressed against the glass.

_Reborn Scalise…the coolest guy in the entire school…_

It wasn't just his suave manner or charm that drew Luce towards him. She felt her cheeks heat up as she remembered their encounters over the years. He had been the first person in school to acknowledge her rather than look through her. How could she not have fallen for him? With Reborn, Luce felt as bright as her name, like she had a presence, a voice, a sureness of her self. One smirk from him could brighten her entire week. With Reborn, Luce felt more than just confident; she felt special. Extraordinary.

Plus, his sideburns were _adorable._

"Reborn-kun, may I speak to you for a moment?"

Thrown out of her reverie, Luce looked down to see a tall, dark haired girl approaching Reborn. From her position, she couldn't see his expression, but she didn't miss how Bianchi, one of Reborn's close friends, stiffened and huffed. It was no secret in Namimori that Bianchi had her heart set on Reborn, who was either totally oblivious to this fact, or very skilled at ignoring her advances.

_That's…Mochida-san, the captain of the kendo club! _

Any joy in Luce at seeing Reborn swiftly collapsed. The kendo club captain was obviously there to express her feelings. Mochida was popular and talented, and Luce knew there was no way she could compete. It felt like there was a rock in her throat. She shouldered her bag and turned away, unable to watch the events unfolding below her.

She didn't want to watch Reborn choose Mochida, and leave her alone, again.

* * *

"I'm home!" Luce called out as she opened the door to her home.

She could hear her family talking in the kitchen, and she smiled as she pulled off her shoes. Maybe they would be able to distract her from the little crisis she was having.

"Oh, Luce, about time! Your food was getting cold!" Her mother, Sepira Nero said, as she shoved a huge plate into Luce's hands, beaming the whole time. "Come on, sit, sit!"

Sepira Nero was a regular middle-aged mother who worked from home. Luce remembered her saying once that she was some kind of magazine editor, though she had never actually seen any articles by her. Sepira looked almost exactly like her daughters, with her straight bob of dark blue hair and blue eyes, the only difference being that her flower-shaped birthmark was on the right side of her face. She was a kind mother, but she could also be rather ditzy and displayed a ridiculous amount of obliviousness to any strange things happening around her.

"So, Luce, what happened to you today? You're frowning, and I always say that if you do that, your face will freeze that way!"

"Uh, well -" Luce began, looking down at her food, but Aria interrupted her, her loud voice easily pulling the attention towards her. Luce knew her sister didn't intend any harm from it, it was just Aria's way, and so she smiled and nodded and listened as her sisters talked.

Luce was the eldest of three sisters who all looked incredibly similar (Luce had for years argued that Uni had copied her hairstyle, no matter how much Uni claimed it was coincidental). Aria was fourteen, and the tallest, a fact that she took great delight in pointing out to Luce, who was dreading the day that twelve-year-old Uni got her growth spurt. Height was not a department she had been gifted in.

She loved her sisters dearly, but she couldn't help but envy them. Aria excelled at all sports and was well liked at school, feisty personality aside, while Uni was smart and cute and generally adored by everyone she met. They were people that commanded the attention of others around them, bright, talented people that others couldn't take their eyes off, leaving quiet, plain Luce to limp behind in their shadow.

She was sure it hadn't always been this way, but sometime before the start of middle school, she had begun to notice how people paid more attention to them, so she said less and less and slowly faded away into the background, while her sisters grew brighter and brighter. Next to them Luce felt like a washed-out imitation.

Once Aria and Uni had gone upstairs, Luce helped her mother wash the dishes (the joys of being the eldest), then clumped up the stairs. Distantly, she heard her mother speaking on the phone, a fact in hindsight she really should have noticed.

"Yes, yes, I totally understand. Oh, don't worry; I'm fine with whatever methods, just try to not to kill her, okay? Good. See you, bye bye!"

Luce caught a glimpse of her mother twirling the phone cord around her finger, but her thoughts were bogged down by unhappiness and loneliness, turning the conversation into faraway sounds.

She flopped down on the bed and stared up at the stars from her window. Clasping her hands together, she whispered.

"Please, I know that if my life is this way, it must be my fate, but please, can't it be changed? Even if it's only for one day, I just want people to look at me."

The stars glimmered from high above, so much greater than her and Luce felt a crushing sense of despair. This had to be her fate, and who could fight that? She closed her eyes, and knew there was nothing she could do.

* * *

Perched on pole, a tiny figure peered through a pair of binoculars to look at a girl doing her homework.

"SO THAT'S HER! THE NEW CANDIDATE!"

Below, a particularly bad-tempered neighbor opened up his window and yelled, "Shut up and for god's sake, let us sleep!"

"SORRY TO THE EXTREME!"

* * *

Morning in the Nero household started on a fairly normal note. Luce woke up early, Uni was on time, and Aria was very, very late and insisting that it had to be someone's fault. Luce twirled her spoon idly as Aria and Uni argued, and wondered how she was going to face a day of watching Reborn and Mochida together. And then her mother dropped a bombshell.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, lifting up her spatula and grinning, "I completely forgot, your home tutor is coming today!"

"Home tutor?" Luce repeated, confused, "But, I don't think I need one kaa-san. And it's only the second week of the school year."

"I know Luce, but I think that he could be very helpful in improving yourself. He came with excellent recommendations. And he's from Italy, so I'm sure you'll find him _very _handsome!"

At that exact moment, the front door was blown straight off its hinges. The spoon in Luce's hand hit the ground with a _thunk_. Uni fell off her chair.

"Oh look, that must be him!" Sepira chirped, as though guests demolishing the front part of their house happened everyday. "Go answer that, would you, Luce?"

Luce decided it was best not to point out that there wasn't exactly a door to answer anymore and did as she was told.

* * *

There was a baby standing on the remains of the doorstep. A baby riding a kangaroo.

"Luce Nero?" he yelled, jumping off the animal and looking up at her with big gray eyes. He had a shock of white hair shading a large scar on his forehead, and a bandage on the bridge of his nose. A yellow pacifier hung around his neck. She blinked.

_How does he know my name? Why is yelling? And why a kangaroo? _

"Um, yes, that's me," she said slowly, feeling dazed and off-balance. There was a baby riding a kangaroo who had just demolished her front door. She found a strange desire to laugh.

"I'm Sasagawa Ryohei, the World's Greatest Boxing-Hitman! I'm here to train you to become a mafia boss _to the extreme_!" he declared loudly, fire burning in his eyes. Miles away, a volcano blew its top from the sheer concentrated passion.

_Maybe he's the son of a zookeeper and got lost..._

"Does your mother know you're here?" Luce asked kindly, bending down so that she was level with him. He seemed like an imaginative and cute kid, like Uni when she was younger. Then he kicked her in the shin.

"_Owww_, why did you do that?" She clutched her leg, having fallen onto the ground, and blinked back tears of shock and pain. It felt like getting kicked by a mule. What kind of baby _was_ this?

"I am not joking! You are the heir to the Vongola, the greatest mafia family in the world! And I will turn you into the most _extreme_ Vongola Decimo!"

"But -" Luce took a deep breath and tried to keep calm; panic would only make things worse. "Supposing what you say is true – and I don't think you are telling the truth – why _me_?"

Luce tried to keep her voice steady, but the last word came out like a shrill squeak. She had just been told that _she _was going to be a _mafia boss _by a _baby_. On a _kangaroo_. It was just totally insane.

Instead of answering, the self-proclaimed boxing-hitman started rummaging through the kangaroo's pouch. After tossing out several sports magazines, a roll of bandages, food, and something that looked suspiciously like a grenade, he pulled out a battered notebook. Flipping through the pages, he grinned when he found what he was looking for.

"Sorry_ to the extreme_! If I don't take notes, I forget things! Good thing I have this handy notebook. The Ninth Boss wants to retire but his sons were all killed." He handed her several gruesome pictures as evidence, then perked up. "But it turns out that Vongola Primo retired and lived in Japan and is your ancestor! So now you are the only candidate left!"

The blue-eyed girl stared at him, then began shaking her head, her voice getting higher and higher. "No, no, _no_! I know that kaa-san has Italian blood, but _I don't want to be a mafia boss_! I'm not mafia material! I'm just an ordinary high school student!"

She realized she was shaking. She heard Aria and Luce came up behind her, obviously having heard the shouting - did this 'Ryohei' say anything at a normal volume, Luce wondered.

"Who's he, Luce-nee? He's so cute, can we keep him?" Uni asked, pinching Ryohei's cheek and beaming happily. Ryohei went red, sputtering and batting her hand away.

"Uni, he's not a pet," Aria reproached then turned to look at Luce, "Is he really your home tutor?"

Luce desperately shook her head as Ryohei loudly declared that he was her _extreme_ home tutor, feeling the situation rapidly getting out of hand. Aria was looking down at the baby in bemusement, while Uni just seemed delighted that she could make a new friend.

"Well, it doesn't matter, come on Luce-nee, we need to get to school," Aria said, holding Luce's bag with one hand.

Luce took and quickly trailed after them, silently hoping that he wouldn't decide to follow her.

Fat chance.

* * *

"I don't know what's weirder…that you're arguing with a baby, or that you seem to be losing," Aria commented dryly, waving goodbye to Uni as she skipped off towards Namimori Elementary.

Luce groaned from behind her as Ryohei smiled smugly. Aria hadn't managed to catch everything, but it sounded like Ryohei wanted Luce to become a mafia boss or something. Aria didn't take it all that seriously – Uni spouted off similar nonsense, so she'd learnt to ignore it. Kids were like that. It was going to be like having a second Uni around, only with six times the volume.

_My poor, tortured ears_, she thought sadly, massaging them.

She glanced over her shoulder, watching Ryohei wear down her mild-mannered sister with his volume and persistence. There was something strange about him, a feeling that Aria got at the back of her mind. She had always been perceptive – although it was nothing compared to how Luce seemed able to sense what people were thinking and feeling – but this was different. Aria didn't understand what this feeling was, or the images it seemed to form in her mind, but she didn't like it.

_Ryohei-san is not an ordinary baby…but then who is he? _

What baby had a scar on their forehead, for one thing? His outfit didn't suit someone of his age either. He had white bandages wrapped around his hands, dark pants, a miniature blue gym shirt, and a bright yellow hoodie. She decided to discuss this with Gamma later. He was her classmate, and the only person she knew who would listen to her and not think she was crazy.

Behind her, Ryohei was berating Luce about her lack of confidence – one of her many reasons for refusing to be a mafia boss.

"Please, Ryohei-san, I'm really not suited to be mafia boss. I don't know how to be confident. I can't lead people. I can't even confess to Reborn!" Luce toed the sidewalk with her foot, cheeks flushed.

"Chaos Luce." Speak of the devil. The person in question had walked up beside Luce, fedora positioned at a rakish angle to shadow his eyes (Reborn always did that, he believed it gave him a roguish appeal). "I heard you say my name?"

Aria snorted at his antics – what was with middle school boys and trying to act cool? Luce choked, going red in the face.

"Wha – I, I…I didn't say _Reborn_," Luce backpedalled wildly, "I said…_Longhorn_. There was a Longhorn…beetle. A big one. Flew by. Just now. Yes. Heh. _Right, Aria_?"

Luce glanced desperately at her, and Aria nodded slowly, smirking the entire time. It was incredibly amusing to watch Luce to struggle to form a coherent sentence, getting more and more embarrassed at her inability to speak to Reborn properly. Having Ryohei around seemed to make Luce more flustered than she normally was. Oh yes, Aria was going to _enjoy _this.

Reborn stared at Luce, looking slightly confused. "Well…if you ever see another again, please tell me. I've been meaning to learn the Longhorn beetle dialect of insect language. It's much harder than dragonfly."

Both Luce and Aria stared at him, mouths hanging open. The coolest kid at Namimori…communicated with insects. Luce looked like someone had hit her over the head. Reborn waved before walking over towards Bianchi, who was waiting for him on the other side of the street. Both girls jumped when Ryohei broke the silence.

"Is that the best you can do?! If you like someone, then you should tell them _to the extreme_! A real man confesses his feelings! The same for a real woman!" he yelled, jumping onto a wall to stand eye-level with Luce.

"But…Reborn is completely out of my league. I can't confess to him. It's impossible," she murmured, fingers tightening around the strap of her bag. Ryohei frowned, jumped off the wall and pulled out a jar of pills from his kangaroo's pouch. Aria's eyes narrowed at the sight of them.

_What is that baby planning? Did he rob a pharmacy or something? _

"Luce, what sound do people make when they see scary movies?" he demanded, fists clenched. The two girls blinked, confused at the sudden question.

"Um…Ah?" Luce suggested.

Immediately, Ryohei jumped up and shoved a pill into Luce's open mouth. She coughed and gagged, clawing at her throat, before finally collapsing on the ground. Her body appeared totally lifeless. Aria grabbed the sides of Ryohei's jacket, eyes burning holes into him.

"What did you do to my sister, baby?" she shrieked. Toddler or not, if there was something wrong with Luce, she was going to kill him.

Ryohei just grinned.

Suddenly, Aria felt a change in the air. The pressure around her seemed to be increasing. She quickly turned to look at Luce just as the pressure exploded outwards…taking Luce's clothes with it.

"TELL REBORN HOW I FEEL WITH MY DYING WILL!"

Aria blinked at the sight of her soft-spoken sister in her underwear and speaking boldly, like another person altogether. Luce's eyes glowed, and her forehead appeared to be on fire. She was too stunned to even try to take a picture to tease Luce about it later.

Turning, Luce ran off at a high speed, sending a shockwave that flung Aria backwards.

"What…just…happened?" she asked, breathless. Ryohei punched the air, smile even wider.

"It's Dying Will Time _to the extreme_!"

* * *

Mochida was boring. Reborn wasn't the type to sugarcoat what he thought about people – people needed to accept the truth, no matter how hard it was to swallow. The only thing stopping him from telling her that was the fact that his guardian had beat it into his head that women deserved to be treated with respect – which was completely hypocritical on his part, that _pervert_.

It didn't change the fact that he had no interest in Mochida. She was arrogant and airheaded, and Reborn much preferred people that could actually look beyond themselves and had a working brain. She also clung to him in the same way possums clung to trees, which was just plain annoying (Bianchi was clingy too, but at least she was interesting and a decent person).

Reborn was, at that particular moment, wishing for something _exciting_ to happen as they walked into school. He also hoped that someone he could stand would appear. So when Luce Nero in her _underwear _landed _on top _of Mochida, Reborn's eyes widened.

_Luce just fell from the sky… Why is her forehead on fire? Hmm…she's looks really cute in her underwear – __**STOP CORRUPTING ME OLD MAN! **_

_This is probably a hallucination…_

"REBORN, I LIKE YOU."

She was staring at him, eyes glowing, back straight instead of slouched, forehead flickering with orange flames. In her underwear.

Reborn's mind was steadily trying to reconfigure itself – he prided himself as someone who could keep a cool head in all situations, but this was a bit much to take in at one go.

Mochida solved the awkward silence by hitting Luce with her bag.

"You exhibitionist!"

* * *

When Luce woke up, she was lying outside the school grounds with Ryohei leaning over her. She yelped and sat up. Aria was sitting next to her, holding her clothes. For a few seconds, her memory deserted her. Then it all came flooding back in a rush of mounting horror.

"I didn't…really just to confess to Reborn, did I?" she asked, half hoping it had all been a strange dream. Aria winced.

"You did. You've been unconscious for about two hours. Who knew Mochida could hit that hard?"

Luce groaned and buried her face in her hands. She was fifteen and her life was officially over. How could she go to school after having done something like that? She was mortified. Reborn might never forgive her. He was probably laughing at her now!

"See, that's how a real woman behaves! Wasn't it good?" Ryohei asked, grinning as though he had just done Luce a huge favor.

"No! It wasn't! What did you give me?"

Luce could dimly hear Ryohei consulting his notebook and enthusiastically explaining something called a Dying Will Pill, which had released her hidden potential and lasted five minutes. It barely registered in her mind. She felt him punch her side.

"Pay attention!"

"I can't. I don't know how I'm going to be able to face everyone."

"I could give you another pill -"

"_No, no, no_, I'm fine, I think I'm just going to go to class now."

She quickly stood up, and found her leg muscles to be aching from all her running. _I guess that's what he meant by breaking my limits. I usually run about as fast as wounded turtle! _She moved to walk towards the large building that was Namimori Middle School.

"Um, Luce-nee?"

"Yes?"

"You might want to put your clothes back on."

"KYAA!"

* * *

Luce deliberated in front of the door, dearly hoping that by some miracle, everyone in class had forgotten what had transpired.

_Sure_, she thought glumly, _and Ryohei's kangaroo can shape-shift. _

She pushed the door open, preparing to apologize to her teacher for being late, when the class erupted into jeers and catcalls. Mochida had told _everyone_. She could feel Bianchi glaring at her from the back of the class, the look promising a cruel and painful death. She tried to catch Reborn's eyes, but his fedora was pulled down low and his mouth was set in a grim line.

Luce turned to run away, only to find herself surrounding by the members of the kendo club. One of them leered at her.

"Where do you think you're going? Captain Mochida is waiting for you in the dojo."

Two of them grabbed her arms, dragging her protesting and kicking away.

She was doomed.

* * *

Reborn watched as Luce, short and tiny in comparison to Mochida, shake as the kendo captain gleefully explained the rules. He didn't like seeing her that way. Luce was kind and sweet and a good person – someone whom Reborn could find himself respecting. He wanted very, very much to fight Mochida, respect for women be damned.

He had already been mad to begin with – he was not going out with her! How many times did he have to tell her that? How could she have told everyone that they were going to fight over him without even asking for his opinion? And she was the captain of the kendo club, and challenging a person who wasn't sports inclined at all. This wasn't a fight, this was humiliation, and Luce didn't deserve to have that happen to her.

And she had called him a _prize_. Like hell he was taking that sitting down.

"Reborn! What are you doing? Stop-"

Bianchi grabbed his arm at the last moment, hissing at him not to interfere in fights between women over men, and Reborn hesitated – and then Luce charged in, forehead on fire, and smashed Mochida's bokken to pieces with one head butt.

Reborn couldn't deny that he was more than a little impressed.

* * *

Luce had tried to sneak out of the dojo, knowing full well that there was no way she could win. She couldn't even beat Uni at arm wrestling, how was she expected to beat someone as skilled as Mochida?

"It's okay," she commiserated, "I'm sure that in a few days everyone will have forgotten about this and I can fade right back into the background. Just bear it for a while."

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?"

Luce nearly fell over at the sound of Ryohei's shout. He was standing in the school hallway, glaring at her.

"Are you a coward, Luce Nero?! No student of mine runs away! Go out there and fight!"

"Yes, I'm a coward. I can't win, and I'm terrified of getting hurt," she told him, feeling tears start to gather. She felt pathetic. If it had been Aria, she would have beaten Mochida into the dirt. Uni would have found some way to trick the kendo captain into losing. She wouldn't be able to do anything except act as Mochida's punching bag.

"Of course you can win! I never become a home tutor for people I think will fail! Now show them your dying will _to the extreme_!"

As the pill slid down her throat, Luce felt something inside her unlock and explode outwards. She was aware of herself racing towards the dojo, and shoving open the doors. She could hear Mochida mocking her appearance, but none of it mattered. All her fears had been thrown aside. What mattered was winning. And Ryohei believed she could. _She _believed she could.

And she _did_.

Mochida lay beneath her, still whimpering at how Luce had torn off all her hair to get an ippon. She had been thrown to the floor and totally trounced. Luce blinked, her face as stunned as the crowd around her, the remains of her opponent's long locks clenched her fists. She had felt herself deciding to rip off Mochida's hair, watched herself do it from far away inside her own mind, and couldn't believe herself. In Dying Will Mode, she was strong and confident – everything she wanted to be.

And she realized - they were _looking at her. _Finally.

The school took a long moment to pick their collective jaws off the floor, before surging around her.

"That was amazing!" "I can't believe you did that!" "And I thought you were some shy weakling-"

Luce was surrounded by the crowd, and so she didn't see Mochida stagger to her feet and throw herself at Luce's back with one furious roar.

But Reborn did.

* * *

He had time to think one word: _Shit_ and then he ran, faster than he'd ever moved before, grabbing Mochida's raised arm and pining it behind her back as he shoved her to the floor. He raised his head a little, enough so that Mochida could see his black eyes, burning with anger.

"I never said I was going out with you," he said, slowly and carefully, drawing out each word and turning it into a threat, "Only cowards attack people from behind. If you ever dare do that again…" Here he leant forward so that nobody could hear what he was saying. "I will turn your life into hell. Maybe next time you'll be more tight-lipped about telling me all your secrets."

He straightened and smirked at her, pure predator. "Understand, Mochida_-chan_?"

She nodded furiously, face terrified, and he was suddenly aware that the school had shifted its attention from its new hero to him. He slowly released Mochida, and cleared his throat, looking at Luce. He dimly registered Bianchi offering Mochida something from her bento box, and could almost feel pity for the girl. Bianchi's cooking was terrifying, and he was certain that Bianchi was going to make the other girl suffer for trying to 'steal' him. But he was more concerned about the short blue-haired girl approaching him, arms wrapped around herself.

"Thank you."

Reborn tilted his head slightly, confused at her words. "For what?"

Luce smiled at him, cheeks stained pink from exertion and embarrassment. "For defending me."

"You could have handled it." Her smile made him uncomfortable for some reason. It was too sincere, too open, too honest. "I just wanted an excuse to teach her a lesson."

"I understand." She kept smiling at him, and Reborn felt like she could see right through him, and knew exactly what he had really meant. He coughed.

"That was…more than amazing. I don't think anyone could have done that," he said lamely, unaccustomed to giving a girl compliments about fighting. He was pretty sure the way he talked to Colonello wasn't going to cut it with Luce. Especially after what she had said to him earlier (he pushed that thought away). It was better they just pretend it had never happened.

She flushed, stammering and Reborn realized that she wasn't wearing anything except her underwear. He averted his eyes, feeling the heat rise to his face. Luce's younger sister – what was her name? Aria? – rushed over, wrapping a jacket around Luce and barking at people to stop looking. She led Luce away, congratulating her.

He shook his head, and remembered the warmth of her smile. Her expression as she had charged in and fought. He had never seen anything like it before, serene and certain and - dare he say it? - beautiful. Reborn didn't know it at the time, but this was the moment when his mundane and boring life would be forever changed.

* * *

"And then I ripped her hair off and won! Can you believe it, Ryohei?"

Luce bounced up and down on her feet as she walked home, Ryohei and his kangaroo (incidentally and very creatively named Kangaryuu) hopping along beside her. She was certain that she had said it before, but she couldn't help it. Ryohei didn't seem to mind, obviously pleased that his student had managed to win. This has his win as much as hers.

"They _looked _at me, Ryohei," she said softly, hair fluttering in the breeze, "I wasn't invisible today."

Ryohei looked up at her, and she knew he understood. She didn't know how she knew this, but she could feel it, deep within her bones, just by looking at him, and it made her feel like she was walking on air.

And it wasn't about the winning. She went warm all over as she remembered the part after. Reborn had more than just acknowledged her this time. He had complimented her. She hadn't been complimented in so long. Luce felt like she could fly at this moment, her heart so light it might float away if she didn't catch it.

On impulse, she scooped Ryohei up and placed him on her shoulder.

"I'm glad that the stars brought you here, Ryohei," she said, and kissed him on the cheek, "Thank you."

The little boxing-hitman went all red, sputtering and telling her that he got here by plane, not by stars. Luce laughed. Maybe her fate really had changed. Ryohei grinned.

"I told you could do win! And they said I'd be a terrible home tutor! So, become a mafia boss!"

"What? I never agreed to that!"

"I refuse to accept that answer! Become a mafia boss Luce Nero!"

"No! I won't!"

They continued like this all the way home.

* * *

Far away, in a bar, a young man examined a photograph of a family. A man sat in front of him, smoking a cigarette. He stabbed one fat finger at the girl in the center.

"That's 'er. I got word from a reliable source that she's an heir," he said, the syllables of his Chinese rough and clumsy. "I want ya to eliminate her. And the lil' sisters too."

The young man smiled serenely and inclined his head. "Consider it done."

* * *

**note4: **Sepira was the name of Luce, Aria and Uni's ancestors. Scalise is the last name of John Scalise, a hitman of the Chicago Outfit during the Prohibition Era. He was, like all hitman, a really nice guy who went around killing people. Since Reborn is a hitman, I thought of giving him a hitman last name - I was more than a little spoiled for choice. If anyone feels that they can think of a better 'mob' sounding last name for Reborn, I'm open to suggestions.  
**note5: **Ryohei using the Dying Will Pills rather than Bullet since the idea of _Ryohei _using a gun is more than a little weird. He'd probably accidentally shoot himself in the foot or something.  
**note5: **So, like it, love it, would rather gouge your eyes out with a wooden spoon? Please let me know what you think, either way. Feedback always encourages me to write more.


	2. Target 2: A Mysterious Transfer Student

**disclaimer: **Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belongs to Akira Amano. I own nothing except this story, and Luce's Home Economics Teacher.

**note: **First things first, I want to thank those that reviewed the first chapter for all their positive feedback - it really urged me to continue writing, and the support was heartening to this fretful writer's soul. You know who you are, all you wonderful people!  
**note2: **And now to answer some questions (those that aren't rife with spoilers): **death angel alice**, yes, Tsuna will be the Sky Arcobaleno. Of course, whether he's alive is another question altogether. **detrametal**, yes, there will be other pairings. I do ship Skull x Viper (I don't even _know _how it started) and in this story, Viper is a girl. Because KHR needs more estrogen. I don't ship Tsuna with Chrome, although I'm rather undecided on who Chrome ought to go with. **Snowylife12**, basically in this universe, Luce and her sisters are Giotto's descendants, hence they are heirs to the Vongola. Who the Giglio Nero goes to, if anyone, and whether Luce's mother knows is something you will have to wait to find out.  
**note3: **Now that that's all settled, please enjoy this next chapter. Happy reading!

* * *

**Target 2: A Mysterious Transfer Student **or **Why Accepting Food from Mysterious Transfer Students Is A Bad Idea**

* * *

"Um, the, the answer is…three?" Luce said uncertainly, looking down at the scribbles on her worksheet. Ryohei kicked her.

"WRONG!" he yelled, glaring at her. After a suggestion by her mother that she needed help in her math, her new home tutor had taken it upon himself to boost her grade. Luce hadn't minded – at least it made him temporarily forget his commitment to training her to become a mafia boss, which he seemed to believe she had agreed to. On the other hand, his idea of boosting her grade hadn't been _quite _what she expected.

"_Oww!_" Luce rubbed the bruise on her face, and scanned the answer key. She frowned a bit and read the characters again, making sure she wasn't mixing them up.

"But…Ryohei, the answer _is _three," she said, holding up the book to show him. He batted it aside with one hand, barely even glancing at it.

"That doesn't matter! If you don't say it with conviction, then it's wrong!" he insisted, "That's how I aced all my tests _to the extreme_!" (Luce suspected he was exaggerating just a _little_)

She nodded slowly and decided not to question it, moving on to the next question. Ryohei perched on the edge of her bed, waiting expectantly. Kangaryuu was curled up on a cushion, snoozing away contentedly. The little kangaroo loved sleeping all over the house, leaving fur everywhere. Sepira was fighting a losing battle trying to get rid of it all.

"The answer…is…well, um, I think it's…" She received another kick to the face. Ryohei grabbed her collar and yanked her forward until their foreheads were touching. Luce swallowed nervously as he looked her right in the eye, suddenly intimidated by the fire in his gaze.

"Say it with conviction!" he roared, and Luce, already feeling pressurized from all the beating and scolding, snapped a little.

"THIRTY-SEVEN TO THE EXTREME!" The sheer force of her yell threw Ryohei backwards onto the floor. Luce gasped, covering her mouth with her hands as though afraid another yell would sneak its way out. She rushed over to his side, trying to check for any bruises. "I'm so sorry Ryohei, I don't know what came over me!"

_And why did I use Ryohei's catchphrase? I hope he's not rubbing off on me…_

The diminutive hitman sat up, grinning widely. "That's _extremely _perfect! Correct answer!"

Luce let out a sigh of relief, glad that he wasn't injured or angry with her, and then turned to look at the answer key again. She frowned; her answer seemed a little bit off. Just a little.

"Um, actually Ryohei, the correct answer is five hundred and twenty."

"Doesn't matter! If you say it with conviction, you're always right!"

The blue haired girl smiled at that declaration. He might not have been helping her improve her math, but he was certainly making her life more interesting. Maybe he was a little loud and very enthusiastic, but he was a good person – even if he did keep pestering her to become a mafia boss.

"Luce-nee, it's time for dinner!" Uni poked her head in, smiling brightly. Luce nodded and began putting away her papers. Her little sister stepped in and placed Ryohei on her shoulder. "Ryohei-nii, you promised to tell me about the time you fought off five hundred mafia men by yourself with only your fists!"

"Of course! It was a daring and dangerous mission - "

Their voices faded as they went downstairs, Kangaryuu, having woken up from her nap, hopping along behind them. Luce shook her head, bemused by the whole thing. Uni had taken an instant liking to Ryohei, and the feeling appeared mutual. She heard a knock on the door, and Aria stepped in, shaking her head.

"So what dastardly villain did Ryohei defeat this time?" Aria quipped, folding her arms and leaning against the table. Luce chuckled, placing her homework in her bag. She paused, her eyes suddenly distant.

"It's funny, sometimes I really feel like he's telling the truth. I get this feeling that he's being sincere, and I don't know where it comes from. But Ryohei's just a baby, right?" she said, standing up to place the math book back on her shelf.

"You too, huh," Aria murmured behind her, tapping her fingernails against the table.

"Mm, what was that?"

"Oh, nothing," Aria responded, changing the subject, "So did that baby give you anymore of his magic pills? Where does he get them from anyways?"

"Not since that day in the dojo. Ryohei says Kangaryuu makes them, apparently."

"You mean his magic pills are _kangaroo poop_?"

"Well…he didn't say exactly _how _she makes them…"

"Luce-nee, you're turning a little green."

* * *

The next morning dawned bright and cheerful, but there were dark storm clouds on the horizon. Luce hummed quietly to herself, tapping her pencil against her desk as the class waited for their teacher to arrive. Things had changed in the past week and a half since Mochida's defeat at her hands. True, after a few days, the memory of the event had faded in most people's minds, and most had quickly forgotten her again. Still, more people nodded and waved to her when she passed by, and that made Luce feel tingly all over.

_Being noticed is new to me…It feels so strange, in a good way. _

On the other hand, it hadn't changed things that much. No one seemed to be offering to become her friend. She felt too awkward to approach Reborn, who seemed to have forgotten her confession to him, and Bianchi had terrified her into keeping a wide berth after she declared them to be 'love rivals'. Luce sincerely hoped the pink haired girl hadn't meant it seriously – more than a few girls who had tried to confess to Reborn whispered about the appearance of a vengeful pink haired demon with cooking that came from hell itself each time they got close to him.

The chatter in the class grew louder as their teacher walked in, followed by a student no one had seen before. He had shaggy black hair that framed his face, a long braid that was likely against school rules, and warm brown almond-shaped eyes. Interestingly, the sleeves of his uniform were too long, covering up his hands. He looked to be a little over average height, and he presented the class with a pleasant smile.

"Everyone, we have a new transfer student from China. Please be kind to him as he is still learning Japanese. His name is Lee Fon," the teacher said, gesturing towards the boy next to her. The transfer student pressed his hands together and bowed.

"_Ni hao_. I hope that we can all be friends," he said politely, carefully pronouncing the words as though he did not fully understand them. Half the girls in the class swooned. Whispering filled the class.

"He's so handsome!" "His smile is so cute!" "Uwah, I hope he doesn't have a girlfriend!"

_It seems like he'll get his wish of many friends, _Luce thought wryly. She supposed the transfer student was fairly attractive, but in her eyes, Reborn was still ten times better looking (she wasn't biased _at all_). Her eyes returned to the transfer student and she was surprised to see him looking at her. It was a strange look, the same kind a scientist might give when he was looking at a particularly interesting specimen. It made her feel cold all over.

She shook her head, and the transfer student's gaze had returned to the class as a whole. Yet, as she looked at the transfer student, she felt a threatening air wash over her. Luce didn't know how she knew this, or why it felt so certain, as though she had known it forever. Her body shivered involuntarily.

"Fon-kun, you'll be sitting next to Luce, over there by the window."

He nodded and walked over. Several girls looked disappointed and sent pointed glares her way. Luce slouched a little and looked at her desk. A girl sitting nearby whispered loudly to her friend, her voice pitched so that the whole class could overhear.

"Next to Luce? Fon-kun had better be careful – if he makes her angry, she'll rip out all his hair!"

The class started laughing, and Luce's head jerked up, going red from the tips of her ears to the ends of her toes. And there she had thought everyone had forgotten. The boy tilted his head to the side, clearly not understanding.

"I apologize, I am not fluent in Japanese, but did you say that Luce-san would rip out all my hair?" he asked, in the same careful, halting speech, smile still present. He had mispronounced several words.

"Ah, they-they're just teasing, Fon-kun, I-I would never do something like that!" Luce stammered, waving her hands in the air. The class was turning her moment of triumph into her embarrassment. Any pride in her about that day was swiftly crumbling into burning shame.

Strangely, he continued smiling at her, but there was something different about it now. It seemed to take on an almost sinister edge. Luce shrank back a little in her seat.

"Oh, I understand. Do not worry, Luce-san. I hope that we can get to know each other in the short time we have together," he said cryptically, pausing as though having to think the words through. He settled down in his seat and looked straight ahead.

She blinked several times, staring at him. The teacher ordered the class to keep quiet, and lessons began, but something about his words bothered her. What had he meant by short time together? They had almost an entire school year together. It was possible that he had meant that he would be transferring schools again, but there was something about the way he had said it that put her on edge.

Her eyes flicked to the boy sitting next to her, studiously taking notes. He seemed fairly harmless, but she had thought the same of Ryohei, who was steadily proving to be more than he appeared.

_I'm probably just overthinking things. What harm could Fon-kun possibly do to me?_

* * *

She felt edgy as the day progressed, like a thread wound too tight and near fraying. More and more she felt the transfer student's eyes on her, scrutinizing, observing, assessing. She hoped fervently that it was just a curious interest in her and her 'hair-ripping', but she couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't quite as innocent as that.

_What does he want from me? Oh, where is Ryohei when I __**really **__need him? _She thought, resisting the urge to bite her nails, a bad habit she'd been trying to break ever since her mother had claimed that nail biting caused death.

"Luce, please read the poem on page 59," her literature teacher said, and she reluctantly stood and began speaking. She was terrible at speaking in front of large groups of people, always growing nervous that she would mess up. She didn't have the ability to keep the attention of others on her. She wasn't like Aria and Uni, who found it easy to address large groups of people without fear. Around her, people slowly began to lose interest as she hesitantly read aloud, and her heart sank.

Her voice faltered, wavered and grew steadily softer and less sure. If Ryohei were here he would have smacked some conviction into her, but Ryohei was off somewhere, and Luce felt worse as she read the final sentence. She sat down, eyes fixed on her desk, a sense of inferiority filling her.

She thought she had begun to change herself, become more confident, but maybe that wasn't possible. Maybe she would always return to being the same average, ordinary, good-at-nothing Luce, no matter what she did. _It wasn't really me that changed, _she thought bitterly. _It was just the pill, and Ryohei's words. Without it, I'm still the person I always was. _

She had been such a fool to think that she could change her fate.

Luce folded her arms and slumped forward on the desk, turning her head a little to stare out the window. She realized the transfer student was looking at her again, but differently this time, almost pityingly. For a few long moments, Luce felt a kindness in him, directed at her. Then he turned his face back to the blackboard, the threatening air returning, leaving Luce confused again.

* * *

Something similar happened again during P.E. The class was playing dodgeball, and everyone – mostly girls – had scrambled to pick Fon for their team. The transfer student obviously excelled at sports, dodging balls left, right and center and easily defeating his opponents. Luce, as usual, struggled - Aria was the one good at sports, not her. Trying to help a teammate, she jumped in front of him and miraculously managed to catch the ball.

"I did it!" she cried, more out of surprise then happiness. Then three balls hit her, automatically sending her out.

Dejected, Luce sat down on the bleachers with all the other slow-moving and athletically disinclined people. She'd been seriously hoping that her sports skills might have improved after her bout with Mochida, but just like her confidence, it seemed to be only a product of the Dying Will Pill. Without it, Luce had as much skill at sports as a sloth did.

_Oh Ryohei, you were wrong to think I was a person who could succeed. That was the Pill, not me. _

She cupped her face in her hands and morosely watched the game. For a split second, she was certain that the transfer student was staring at her with the same pitying look. A distinct feeling of kindness drifted towards her. She blinked, and Fon was busy dodging a barrage of red rubber balls, as though he hadn't even looked her way at all.

Luce rubbed her forehead, certain she was going crazy.

* * *

Shouldering her bag, she waited just outside the school building. School had just let out, and she and Aria were planning on walking back together and picking up Uni, since all three sisters ended at the same time that day. Tapping her foot, she glanced around for her sister's dark blue shoulder length hair.

_I guess she's still chatting with people in class, _Luce thought, staring up at the clear blue sky that always soothed her. _Or flirting with Gamma_, she thought, smiling. Her sister denied it, but it was painfully obvious that the blond boy had it bad for Aria. He was certainly attractive, to the point that Uni had developed a crush on him once.

The thought of boys brought her mind back to the transfer student. There was just something about him that made her feel afraid and confused. He had given her the same look of kindness when she had bent down and picked up a pen he had dropped. It had happened again when she had offered to explain to a classmate how to pronounce a word in English. Luce couldn't make heads or tails of it, and had done her best not to meet his eyes. She had avoided him during lunch by escaping to eat on the roof, a place she usually went to so as not to feel lonely eating by herself in a crowded classroom. She enjoyed sitting up there, watching the blue sky and munching on her mother's cooking, nothing but the wind as company. But sometimes, she would feel like there was something missing, eating alone on a roof for three years.

In her second year, another student had started eating on the roof as well, a boy with purple hair and multiple piercings. He was a second year now, in Aria's class, if she recalled correctly. He kept to himself and left her alone, and she had always been afraid of approaching him. He had an eerie feeling about him, and his multiple piercings made Luce wonder if he might be some gangster.

At the thought of _gangster_, several members of kendo club appeared in front of her. One of them cracked his knuckles menacingly. She gulped, pressing her back against a wall. She had noticed them watching her lately, but hadn't that they would attempt something like _this_.

"Um, hello?" she squeaked out, wondering if this was what a cornered animal felt like.

"Hey there Luce-_chan_, we're here to bring you a little message from Captain Mochida," one of them snarled, exposing a mouth full of crooked teeth. He lunged, his punch aimed for her face.

Panicking, Luce ducked under the swing and bolted, darting behind an equipment shed to hide. Sinking to the ground, she clutched her school bag tight to her chest, heart pounding in her ears.

"That was too close," she murmured, and prayed that by some miracle, nobody would find her.

"And everyone said you were a very vicious fighter. I admit I am a bit disappointed."

Luce yelped, jumping nearly a foot in the air at the smooth statement. She turned to see Fon standing by the edge of the shed, watching her with a smile on his face. She exhaled a little, but the edginess she had felt throughout the day didn't disappear. There was just something _off _about him that didn't sit well in her gut.

"Oh, it's you Fon-kun, you gave me a fright," she said, slowing standing. She paused, something in her mind clicking. "Your Japanese!"

"Did I say something wrong, Luce-san? I apologize, I am not fluent in your language."

She blinked, and suddenly the threatening feeling she had sensed the entire day no longer seemed like a product of her imagination. One shaking finger rose, pointed accusingly at his chest.

"Fon-kun, just now, your Japanese…was perfect. You weren't speaking in that careful way or mispronouncing words. You sounded…fluent!" she gasped.

"Am I? My practice must have worked -"

"You're lying to me, Fon-kun," she said, even though she didn't know how she knew this, and smiled because it made her feel less scared, "So why don't you tell me the truth? You don't have to be embarrassed."

If anything, his smile grew wider, his brown eyes growing sharp as flints. His hands, which had previously been behind his back, moved to the front, pressed together as though in apology. Luce suddenly felt afraid.

"Looks like I've been found out," he said, his speech now smooth and clear, each syllable precise. "I thought I had fooled everyone into believing I was an ordinary transfer student. You managed to tell from hearing me speak fluently once. Perhaps you _are_ worthy of being the Vongola Decimo."

"V-vongola D-decimo, F-Fon-kun, what are you talking about?" she stuttered, wondering how in the world he knew about that. Was it common knowledge in the mafia world? He shook his head at her statement.

"Time for truth, don't you think, Luce-san?" he asked, tilting his head, "I am aware that you are in line to become the boss of the Vongola. I am being honest when I admit I do not believe you are fit."

Luce wasn't sure how to respond to that – he was after all, right. She was about as appropriate for a mafia boss as Ryohei was to be a nuclear physics professor.

"But my opinion of course has nothing to do with my job," he continued, still speaking politely as his words took a disturbing turn, "I'm afraid I will have to kill you now. It is nothing personal. It is just business."

Before Luce had time to even realize what he had just said, he held out a dumpling and moved his hand. A foul smell filled her lungs, and she found herself lying on the floor, limbs twitching involuntarily. She tried to sit up, but found that her body wasn't responding to her thoughts.

_What's happening? I can't control my movements! _She thought, fear mounting.

She struggled furiously as Fon slowly approached, no longer smiling. He looked almost sad, studying the dumpling in his hand. He was going to kill her, and there was nothing she could do but twitch there helplessly. She didn't want to believe it was true. It felt too wrong.

"That technique is called the Gyoza-Fist. I've sent a wave of garlic into your brain that numbs it, causing the state you're in now. Please stop resisting, Luce-san. Nobody is capable of breaking out of that state," he said. Tears threatened to spring into Luce's eyes.

_I'm going to die. _

"You are a kind person, Luce-san, as well as weak. Consider this a favor – you will never experience what the mafia world is like. I wish it didn't have to be you. Goodbye, Luce Nero."

His fist swung down, ready to snuff the life right out of her.

Luce stared at it, not fully able to comprehend it, as though a part of her believed that he was going to pull it back at the last second, even as it rushed ever closer, heralding her demise.

And then a small hand blocked the incoming assault, a small hand belonging to a baby with spiky white hair who smirked at the stunned Chinese boy. A kangaroo hopped over beside him.

"_Ryohei!_"

* * *

Fon was no stranger to odd things – one of his fighting styles involved weaponized garlic, which wasn't exactly normal. He had seen all sorts of things in his fifteen years on Earth. But getting his fist stopped by a _toddler _and a _kangaroo_ definitely threw him off a little. He remembered vaguely hearing once about babies that weren't really babies at all, but rather incredibly powerful people, a tale told by a particular drunk Italian mobster in a bar in Hong Kong.

He hadn't believed in it for a second – the man hadn't helped his case by drunkenly insisting that Fon was his mother – but now he considered the story again. _Could that story have held a grain of truth? _He wondered. The name _Ryohei _was familiar, and he tried to place it.

"Sorry I'm late _to the extreme_!" the baby yelled, and with the slightest flick of his wrist, sent a startled Fon careening backwards. "You're early, Lee Fon!"

Catching his breath, he stood again, trying to reassess the situation. The baby was powerful and obviously protecting Luce, and was likely to prevent him from trying to kill her again. A rather large part of Fon was glad of this – since this morning, he hadn't felt entirely comfortable with killing Luce Nero. He had rather hoped she would be a vicious and loathsome person. He felt less guilty when his targets were people that deserved what they got. Killing an ordinary middle school student was just plain cruel, especially one that looked to be a nice person, if a little meek.

"You…know…him?" Luce had managed to shift a little to look at Ryohei, and she was obviously finding it a great effort just to speak. Most of his targets were trained enough to at least retain their ability of speech. Fon felt even lower.

"Yes! He's a free agent from China that carries out assassinations! I heard that he was coming here to kill you!" Ryohei declared loudly. Luce's eyes widened. She turned to look at him, blue eyes confused.

"Fon-kun…you're…mafia?"

She sounded so uncertain, as though she were just waiting for someone to yell 'Fooled you' and everything turned out to be a joke.

"No. I take up any job offered to me, regardless of the client. In this case, I was hired by a mafia family that wished to do away with the Vongola Heir before she became powerful," he explained, eyeing Ryohei warily. He avoided looking at Luce. It would only prevent him from carrying out his job.

"And I recognize your name now," he said, directing this at the toddler standing by the twitching girl on the ground, "The Ninth Vongola's most trusted hitman. Sasagawa Ryohei."

Luce looked even more stunned. Fon guessed that Ryohei hadn't clued her in as to how powerful and high-ranking a person he really was. Fon had heard the name whispered about before, but he certainly hadn't been expecting a baby. He shrugged a little – it was inconsequential who the baby was. What was more important was fulfilling his job, going back to China and cooking as many dumplings as possible until he could forget the look in Luce Nero's eyes as he had moved to kill her.

She had looked at him with eyes that believed he wouldn't really kill her. There had been trust in her eyes.

Fon had been killing since he was old enough to walk, and he remembered the face of every single person he had ever killed. Recently though, he had begun to find them haunting him in his sleep. Clawing at him. Telling him that he was scum. Sometimes he found himself wondering whether they had deserved what they got.

Luce's face was just making it so much worse.

"It doesn't matter who you are. I'm still here to kill her," he stated, forcing himself to think about his job. _Just the _job, he thought, _You've done this before, why should this time be any different? _To his complete surprise, the baby just kept on smiling, as though Fon had just declared that he was bringing Ryohei's Christmas present early.

"Of course! Carry on _to the extreme_!"

"What do you mean, Ryohei? Aren't you here to save me?"

The baby hopped over until he was standing by Luce's head. The girl was staring up at him in total shock.

"NO! I'm not here to fight him!" he declared. Then he pulled out a small pill and dropped it into her mouth. "You are!"

Fon was more than a little shocked by what happened next. Luce's fingers twitched, then curled, and suddenly the Gyoza-Fist had no hold over her, and she was standing. Luce, shy, awkward Luce, was standing in front of him in her underwear with her fists clenched, back straight, forehead on fire.

"DEFEAT FON WITH MY DYING WILL!"

Only one thought managed to register in Fon's mind: _polka dots? _before he was hit by something that felt like a tank. He was flying through the air before he realized that the very self-same shy girl had just rammed her shoulder into his gut and knocked him off his feet. He landed with an audible _thud _and slowly pushed himself to his feet.

The situation was rapidly forcing him to reevaluate his notions about Luce Nero. She was definitely not the weak girl that he had witnessed throughout the day. This was the girl that had reputedly ripped off all the hair from the kendo club captain's head. It totally contradicted everything he had believed.

He shifted into a fighting stance, easily knocking aside her clumsy swing and throwing one into her gut. Instead of doubling over, she turned and kicked outwards. He dodged aside and moved in for another punch.

Fon rained blow after blow on her, blows that would have knocked out an ordinary person long ago but she bore each one as though they hadn't even touched her. He was forced into using moves he hadn't done in years, pushed more and more into a defensive position. She moved faster than he expected, each swing gaining greater speed. And the most terrifying part was that the entire time her face was perfectly serene and certain – much like his own ever present smile, which was fast in danger of slipping.

_This is…this is impossible! Who is the real Luce Nero? _

At last, exhausted, he sank to the ground, too drained to even lift himself up and go at her again. He shook his head slightly, almost totally unable to comprehend what had transpired.

"I lost," he said dumbly, no longer smiling. Luce walked slowly towards him, one fist raised. _Ah, this is the finishing blow_, he thought, _Here is where her mafia blood truly shows itself. No mercy. _

The fist swung closer and closer and Fon watched it. He was too tired to move. And this was the world of assassins and hitmen and killers, after all. Allowing your opponent to live was just foolish. He had done the same to countless others that he had forced to their knees. Now it was his turn. So he waited.

The fist stopped three inches from his head. He blinked, and looked up. The mysterious glow was gone from her eyes, and she was staring at him, smiling. With kindness. Fon gaped as she lowered her fist and spread out her fingers. Offering him a hand.

_Why?_

"Are you alright, Fon-kun?" she asked, then winced, rubbing her stomach. "_Ouch_. You hit really hard."

As though in a dream, he accepted her outstretched hand and got slowly to his feet. She smiled at him, then squeaked as she realized she was wearing only her underwear. Automatically, he turned around as she pulled her clothes back on, still confused. When he turned back, she was arguing with Ryohei. He couldn't stand the confusion anymore.

He cleared his throat. "Luce-san…I…Why didn't you kill me?"

"I'm not going to be a mafia - Eh? Why would I have?" She was staring at him in bewilderment.

He almost wrung his hands, uncertain why in the first place this bothered him so greatly. It just went so much against everything he knew. "Because I tried to kill you."

She smiled again. "Yes. But you didn't."

He frowned, his ever-ready smile unable to snap back into place. "But I tried to _kill _you."

Luce tilted her head, and her smile spoke so much of understanding. "Did you? Because I think, if you had _really _wanted to kill me, you could have done it hours before this, during all the times I was alone today."

She shouldered her bag and began walking away. Then she turned a little and gave him a half-smile. "And I think, Fon-kun, maybe you will deny this, but that punch you threw when I was paralyzed? I still think you would have pulled it."

Fon stared after her retreating back, and felt as though she had just read his mind. _I wouldn't have pulled back...would I? _He remembered how he had thrown the punch a little slower than usual, enough so that she could see its progress, how he had felt more and more the uneasiness about his action. _Would he have pulled it? _Fon didn't know. He didn't even know if he had fought with his full power today. It seemed absurd than a middle schooler with no martial arts background could have defeated him.

And what she had said about him not killing her when he had the chance... She was right about that. Throughout the day, each time he had thought _now is the perfect opportunity to kill her_, he had paused and decided _let's just wait a bit. I have time. No rush. _

He was an efficient person by nature. He killed quickly, cleanly, methodically. When the opportune moment presented itself, he took it. _Never look a gift horse in the mouth_, one of his teachers had always said. But something about Luce Nero had made him waver. He found himself making excuses. He had _known _she was on the roof of the school building all alone, no witnesses, yet he had let the moment go.

_What's happening to me? When did this start? _

It had started before he had seen Luce's sweet, earnest face this morning. Before she had stumbled through a literature passage and made him pity her. Before she had defended a teammate in P.E. even though it would have gotten her knocked out. Before he had watched her display kindness and generosity and _trust _that he didn't believe he deserved. If he was honest with himself, it had started _years_ ago.

He hadn't wanted to kill Luce Nero. He hadn't wanted to kill a lot of people, regardless of whether they deserved it or not. He was fine with sending them to the hospital (he wasn't that much of a saint) but killing turned his stomach. Who was he to take away someone's life?

Luce Nero's retreating back spoke to him of something he had never considered before, options he had never thought of. He had always believed he could not be anything other than an assassin. Maybe that was not true. He imagined a person like Luce leading the mafia. _There's somebody I wouldn't mind calling boss_, he thought. _Someone kind. Someone merciful. Someone who would change the mafia into something better. If I worked for a person like that, I'm sure I would never have to kill again._

"Wait."

And that was what he had always wanted.

She turned back and looked at him.

"I was wrong. You are more than fit to be a mafia boss. After I saw what you did just now, I wish to follow you as a leader. Please let me join your family, Luce-san," he said, bowing to her. Her face fell.

"I-I'm sorry, Fon-kun," she said softly, looking at her feet, "But that person who fought you – that's not me. I'm not strong or confident or a good fighter. I don't even want to be in the mafia! I'm so sorry Fon-kun. Thank you...but I just can't."

She turned on her heel and sprinted away, leaving a conflicted Fon behind.

* * *

Luce avoided talking to Fon as much as she could the next day, ducking into classrooms whenever he crossed her path. She couldn't deny that she had been a little terrified at his attempt to kill her – what sane person wouldn't be? But then she had sensed something, something that came across to her more and more as she had fought him. It was the kindness she had detected earlier. He hadn't wanted to kill her – she was certain of that. She could feel it in a place inside her chest she couldn't name.

That was why she had forgiven him and pulled her blow at the last minute. Luce wasn't a killer by nature. She wanted to forgive people, unless they had done something so unspeakably evil that it was impossible for her to do so. She knew deep down Fon hadn't wanted to kill her, and that allowed her to let it go. He wasn't a killer - or at least, he didn't seem to want to be anymore. And she was more than willing to be Fon's friend. As much as people in school seemed to adore him, she noticed that he rarely interacted with people and hadn't seemed to have made any friends. It almost reminded Luce of herself – minus the adoration, of course. But then he had to mention the mafia and the Dying Will Pill.

_He __**is **__an assassin, _she thought, _I suppose strength is what attracts assassins to team up with others. _

Luce had felt crushed the moment he had mentioned her actions while in Dying Will Mode. That girl and herself were so far apart she couldn't reconcile them in her mind. Fon didn't like _her_. He liked the not-her, the confident, amazing one, not ordinary, dull Luce. Like always, she was a person that nobody paid attention to. Why would Fon have wanted to be friends with someone as average as her?

Ryohei had been surprisingly mute about it, instead congratulating on her on her fight. Luce thought he would have insisted on her recruiting him.

She sighed as the class filed into the kitchen for Home Economics. The class, up till now, had an odd number of students, meaning that Luce usually worked alone. She didn't have any sort of best friend to team up with. Like many things, she had gotten used to it. Settling down on her seat, she prepared herself for three hours of having to do the work of two people by herself.

"_Ni hao_."

Startled, she glanced up to see Fon sitting down next to her. He smiled pleasantly.

"I thought that we might be able to work together. Is that alright?"

"Ah, o-of course, Fon-kun." _Is he planning something? _She wondered. Fon seemed more preoccupied with examining the ingredients in front of him – they were baking cupcakes and a cake today, something Luce had done countless times for Aria and Uni's birthdays. She decided not to press the issue about the mafia with Fon and act as though nothing had occurred.

They worked together seamlessly; Fon was a remarkably good cook. _Well he should be, since he makes paralyzing dumplings_, Luce thought, and almost smiled at the thought. Paralyzing dumplings. It fit right in with pills that unlocked your potential and baby hitmen on kangaroos.

She stole glance at him out of the corner of her eye. He was mixing together the cake batter, a serene expression on his face, as always. Luce allowed the tension in her to ease up. She certainly felt no hostility from him. He had probably just decided to work with her since she was the only one without a partner. It probably had nothing to do with the mafia at all. Probably.

And it felt _good _having someone to work with. She didn't have to rush around trying to do everything by herself – she could relax and allow herself to have fun. Twice she giggled when Fon splattered cake batter on his face from stirring too hard, and she saw him smile in return.

_Is this_, she wondered, _what it's like to have a friend? _

Looking down at their joint creation, Luce felt proud. It looked delicious. The teacher beamed, clearly impressed, and took a bite out of a cupcake, chewing slowly. Luce smiled.

Then the teacher's face changed, suddenly going red, and she collapsed on the floor in a boneless heap. Luce rushed around the table, shaking the teacher hard, feeling panicked.

"Haruna-sensei! Haruna-sensei!" Her eyes spied the cupcake clutched in Haruna-sensei's hand. She hadn't added anything to it…her eyes darted to Fon, who was staring at the cupcakes with a worried expression. She added two and two together and got a guilty Chinese transfer student.

"Fon-kun," she said slowly, "You didn't add anything to the cupcakes, did you?" He coughed into one sleeve and went a little pink.

"Well…this is just a _possibility_ – a very, very weak possibility, I might add, I _may_ – and this is a strong may, have accidentally added in enough garlic to knock her out." He coughed again. "Oops?" he asked weakly.

"Fon-kun!"

"It was force of habit?"

"Wait, where did you even get garlic from? We weren't given any!"

"Oh, I always carry garlic around with me. One can never be too prepared."

Luce nearly gnashed her teeth at the ridiculousness of it all. She shook their unconscious teacher again. By now a small crowd was starting to form. Her first time cooking with a partner, and they poison the teacher. She was never going to live this one down.

At that moment, Reborn handed her a plate of foul smelling purple cupcakes. She gagged, holding them at arm's length.

"Try using these to wake her up," he suggested, pinching his nose with one hand, and Luce would've blushed at his proximity to her if she hadn't been carrying a plate of food that smelled like a sewer. Behind them, Bianchi yelped and demanded that Luce give back her creation.

Carefully, she moved towards Haruna-sensei's face. _Forgive me, Haruna-sensei. _She shoved the treats directly under the teacher's nose. At once, their teacher shot awake, gasping and choking.

"What on _Earth _is that god-awful smell?" She sat up a little and saw Luce and Fon looking guiltily at her. Her eyes narrowed. "You two! Principal's office, now!"

"But - "

"NOW!"

* * *

The two 'delinquents' stood in front of the principal, one of them staring at her shoes, the other smiling. Luce bit her lip to keep from going into a panic attack. The principal glared at them, arms folded.

"Well? What do you have to say for yourselves about your little prank?" he demanded. Luce wondered how she was supposed to explain.

_I'm so sorry principal-san, my friend here is an assassin from China that uses garlic to paralyze people and he accidentally knocked Haruna-sensei out. How do I know this? Oh, I'm actually a mafia boss and I'm being tutored by a baby boxing-hitman that rides a kangaroo and gives me magic pills that set my forehead on fire and make my clothes fly off. Would you like some cake? _

It was completely _insane_. And then Fon stepped forward and bowed. Luce's heart nearly stopped. He wasn't going to _tell _the principal that, was he? He opened his mouth and Luce leapt forward to cover it when…

"Pu-rank? So sorry, but I no un-da-stand," he said, and Luce froze in her tracks, "I ack-ci-den-ta-rry add wrong in-gre-di-ent. I no un-da-stand Japanese. Re-ci-pi hard to fo-row. From China, you see. So sorry."

He bowed several times, as Luce gaped at him. Fon turned his face a little and _winked_. Then he turned back and continued playing up the 'apologetic-non-Japanese speaking transfer student' act for all it was worth. Luce resisted the urge to start laughing. It was so unbelievableand yet the principal was just eating it up.

"Oh, it's all right Fon-kun," he said kindly, "But Nero, didn't you notice what he was doing?"

Luce paused, and then Fon nudged her in the side. _Hard_.

"_Oww…_I mean, I'm so, so sorry sir. But…" Here she paused and recognized that Fon wanted to play along. Luce was no actress, but at this point, she was sure the principal would believe anything. "He just seemed so enthusiastic, and he wanted to try so much, so I let him do what he thought was right. It's just so hard _communicating_, sir, but I tried sir, I really did."

She gave several very inauthentic sniffles. "I'm not in trouble, am I?"

The principal waved his hand and smiled kindly. "Oh no, no, I understand it must be so difficult. Just apologize to Haruna-sensei, alright? Now go back to class." He dismissed them.

* * *

As they walked further and further away from the principal's office, Luce felt a laugh start to escape at the sheer silliness that had transpired. She tried to hold in the laugh, which made her snort like camel, and then Fon snorted, so the laugh came bubbling right out of her. They were trying desperately not to laugh, since they were still within hearing range of principal's office, but that just made it harder. Luce's sides ached for trying to keep it in.

She wheezed and told Fon she couldn't breathe, which just made him laugh harder, which made her laugh even harder, because Fon sounded ridiculous when he laughed. She told him that, which was a mistake, because that brought up the laugh anew.

At last, unable to hold it in anymore, they collapsed on the floor of the corridor near the stairwell, and let themselves calm down. Luce wiped tears from her eyes. This was the most fun she'd had in…Luce couldn't even really remember the last time she'd had fun with people. She glanced at Fon, who was still chuckling quietly. She smiled. It felt right.

"My jaw hurts," he admitted.

"That means you haven't laughed in a long time," she said, and thought it must be sad being Fon, an assassin at age fifteen, when boys ought to be getting crushes and fooling around and just being _boys_, really. Not killing.

"Fon-kun?" she asked. He looked at her. "I-I know that I rejected you from being in my family. But…could we be friends? I think I'd like that."

He smiled, and it was genuine this time, not one of his all-purpose smiles. She was glad for it. "I'd like that very much, Luce-san."

She smiled, and leaned her head back against the wall. They could see the sky out the window, no longer eternally blue but filled with traces of storm clouds.

"Luce-san, perhaps you misunderstood me yesterday," Fon stated, not meeting her eyes, "I was not referring to your fighting skills. I meant your kindness. I wished to be work for you because you are a good person."

Luce felt the same way she'd felt when she'd won the match with Mochida. Ordinarily, she would have denied this, sputtered that she wasn't worth it in the least, but she remembered what Ryohei had taught her: conviction. Luce felt she knew what he meant. That he wanted to stop killing, and befriending her had been the first step. She didn't question the knowledge. She just knew.

And then a little head of white hair appeared, followed by a grin.

"I knew if I waited you'd be able to get a subordinate! I told you that you would succeed! Congratulations _to the extreme_!"

"Thank you, Ryohei...wait, I didn't recruit anyone! Fon-kun is my friend!"

"Actually, I wouldn't mind being your right hand man…"

"Don't you start too, Fon-kun."

* * *

In his tiny apartment on the edge of Namimori, Fon easily shaped a dumpling and smiled to himself. He had made sure to the spread the word in all circles that Lee Fon had officially retired from assassination. Word was spreading that he now worked for the Vongola Decimo, and would accept jobs from now other.

He smiled a little nastily as he thought about the people that had protested. A few phonecalls had changed that. Several key members of the family that hired Fon woke up in the middle of the desert with the vague memory of garlic and a letter in their hands. It contained three pages of detailed threats if they ever so much as went near the Vongola Heirs, including graphic detailing of ancient Chinese torture techniques, several creative uses of nails, and a rather interesting suggestion involving a turnip, a weed-whacker and industrial strength glue. Needless to say, he hadn't received so much as a '_ni hao_' from any of them.

He bit into the dumpling and glanced out the window. It would rain soon, yet Fon felt like things were finally starting to look up at little. He felt like a new person. It was a good feeling.

* * *

**note4: **Just in case anyone gets the wrong idea, I know that nobody speaks in that broken English-actually-Japanese. Fon is just playing on the stereotype of foreigners that can't speak a native language properly. I do not intend any insult by it.  
**note5: **Also, nuclear physicist Ryohei would be perfect. "And we hit these together and there's an EXTREME explosion!"  
**note6: **So there you have it, Chapter 2! I hope I did Fon's character justice. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the story so far, so feel free to drop a review, even if it's only one line. It makes me feel like I'm actually writing something worthwhile.


	3. Target 3: The Shooting Champion

**disclaimer:** Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belongs to Akira Amano. I own nothing except this story.

**note: **GAH COLONELLO WHY ARE YOU SO HARD TO WRITE. Oddly enough, when I finally got this chapter into what I wanted, it was raining. Coincidence? I think not.  
**note2: **Anyways, I'm glad that everyone's enjoying the story so far. It really brings a smile to my face, seeing all the reviews. As for the questions: **death angel alice**, nope, the Arcobaleno are still the opposites of the flames they represent. **Resha Tsubaki **and **detrametal**, Hibari and Fon, Kyoko and Ryohei and Bianchi and Gokudera are still all going to be related, just not in quite the same way as the original. But more on that later. **SnowyLife 12**, not exactly, I'm sure you're picking up on how Luce can sense people's thoughts and feelings. **Leah**, yes Kyoko and Haru will appear, but they'll be playing different roles this time.  
**note3: **And on to the chapter. Warning: Lots of guns.

* * *

**Target 3: The Shooting Champion **or **Not Worth Throwing Yourself Off A Building For**

* * *

Ryohei put his binoculars to his face and watched the students passing by. It was a good thing that Luce had accepted Fon as her subordinate without him needing to push her, but the Ninth had specifically told him that Luce needed to form a group of her own, and one maybe-subordinate wasn't enough. Which was why, at that moment, Ryohei was perched on a tree branch by Namimori Middle, scouting for potential people.

He congratulated himself on how stealthy he was being – the Octopus Head claimed he didn't have a stealthy bone in his body, and Ryohei always enjoyed proving the genius wrong. What would Gokudera think now, seeing him, Sasagawa Ryohei, Master of Stealth?

"I THINK THAT ONE WOULD BE AN EXTREMELY GOOD CANDIDATE, GARYUU!"

_Yes_, Ryohei thought proudly, _very stealthy_.

Below him, several confused middle schoolers glanced up at the tree and whispered to themselves about a 'strange new species of bird'. Oblivious, Ryohei scribbled down the name of the student in his handy notebook, as well as a sketch of the student's face that he humbly felt did incredible justice to real life. He'd have to find a way to test out their skills and compatibility with Luce. He looked down at the list. It was pitifully short, but Ryohei didn't mind. They'd find the right people eventually.

Tomorrow was going to be a good day _to the extreme. _

Pleased, he hopped on Kangaryuu's back and set off back to the Nero House with a loud _extreme_. He was hungry and he had after all, promised to tell Uni the remarkable tale about how he, Sasagawa Ryohei, had come up with an amazing plan and defused an extremely complicated bomb when all hoped seemed lost and even genii were stumped and panicking. Uni was a great listener, nodding and 'oohing' at all the right moments, and she was just as good at telling her own stories. He might have been exaggerating a little bit to impress her, but Ryohei justified to himself, it wasn't like anyone would find out.

No need to mention that in the latest story, Gokudera had actually done most of the thinking.

* * *

Luce skipped happily down the streets towards Namimori, hopping over puddles, the remnants of last night's downpour. It was the kind of thing an elementary school student would have done, but Luce couldn't help it. For once, she looked forward to the day. Ever since she had become friends with Fon, school no longer seemed as lonely and difficult. She had somebody to eat with on the roof, somebody to whisper to in class, somebody to partner up with, somebody to have fun with.

She had believed for a long time that she would be ignored for the rest of her life. Maybe her mother was right when she said _are bad things happening? Then wait a moment. _

_This mafia boss position…I suppose it at least brought some good to me._

"You're in a good mood," Aria observed, jogging along beside her, blue hair whipping in the wind.

Luce laughed. "How did you guess?"

"You were humming really off-key this morning in the shower. The more off-key you get, the happier you are."

Luce squawked and gave Aria a light shove. Her sister returned it in kind. Kangaryuu hopped along beside them, carrying Ryohei on her back. The hitman had insisted on coming along with her to school, and for once, she didn't argue. Still, she wondered why he had wanted to accompany her so badly. Ryohei didn't seem the type to have any interest in school whatsoever.

As they entered the large compound, Aria peeled away to where some of her classmates were. Waving goodbye, Luce and Ryohei headed over to where Fon was waiting. He smiled politely and greeted her, throwing her a surprised look at the sight of Ryohei. Nobody questioned why a baby on a kangaroo was following her about, but Luce was beginning to understand that people could be oblivious to a lot, no matter how ridiculous.

She opened her mouth to respond when a loud commotion broke out nearby. Startled, Luce turned around to see a group of people surrounding a very tall, lean boy with bright blue eyes, shaggy blond hair and a cocky smirk. A dark green camouflage headband with a white 'number one' pin was tied around his head in blatant defiance of the school rules. Students were congratulating him and clapping him on the back, with several girls blushing and giggling when he looked at them. Fon's eyebrows rose slightly at the sight.

"If I may ask, who is that boy that so many people are fawning over?" he inquired.

"I've never seen him before!" Ryohei declared. Luce wondered if she ought to point out that Ryohei hadn't met a lot of people in her school, then decided it wasn't worth the argument.

"Ah, that's Colonello Fucile. He's a member of the shooting club. He's in our class, Fon-kun, but I think he was away with the shooting club at a competition in Tokyo, so that's why you haven't met him," Luce explained as she watched the crowd around the obviously foreign student get larger.

"It looks like he won," Fon stated, then tilted his head a little, "But he isn't from Japan, is he?"

Luce shook her head at that – the very idea of blond, blue-eyed Japanese was totally impossible. _Only in those silly manga Aria reads_, she thought. If she remembered right, Colonello had come to Japan in their last year of elementary school. She racked her memory for the exact place that Colonello hailed from. A warning bell sounded in her mind.

_That's right…Colonello-kun is originally from…__**Italy! **_

Her eyes darted to Ryohei, who was watching the blond boy with interest. She couldn't allow him to find out – he'd just take it as a reason to recruit her classmate as her next 'subordinate'. Luce didn't mind having friends, but there was no way she was going to bring an innocent person into the world of the mafia. She might not have ever spoken to Colonello before, but she felt a strong desire to make sure he would never be subject to any mafia related activities.

Fon seemed to pick up on her alarm and swiftly changed the subject. "He certainly seems very popular."

"Tell me more about him!" Ryohei demanded, turning to look at Luce. She shuffled her feet and tried to think of things to say that would make Colonello sound as unappealing a subordinate as possible. _I'm sorry Colonello-kun, but it's for your own good. _

"Well," she said slowly, weighing her words, "I've heard he's bad at his studies. And he gets into fights a lot. He's very competitive. And he's _very _loud."

As though to illustrate her point, Colonello escaped from his fawning posse and headed over to where Reborn and Bianchi were waiting for him. He and Reborn immediately started fighting over something, their voices carrying over to where Luce, Fon and Ryohei were standing, all the way across the compound.

"Please, your little handgun toys couldn't hit a turtle! Big guns are where the power is, kora!" Colonello was insisting, glaring at a smirking Reborn.

"But handguns require accuracy, unlike _some _weapons," Reborn replied smoothly. Luce remembered hearing that her crush was some kind of handgun enthusiast, which sent her off into a little daydream where Reborn was some kind of suave gunslinger rescuing her from evil mafia. Ryohei stomped on her foot to bring her back down to Earth.

"OI! What's that supposed to mean, kora? Let's settle this like men!"

"It wouldn't be much of a competition."

"Course it wouldn't, I'd blow you out the water, you bastard!"

Bianchi only shook her head at the antics, and as Luce massaged her aching foot, she was suddenly thankful that she had little sisters, not little brothers. _Just watching it makes me feel exhausted, _she thought. Fon smiled thinly. She wondered suddenly if Fon had siblings, or family for that matter. If he had anyone aside from her and Ryohei.

"I think, Luce-san, the appropriate word to describe Colonello-san would be _hot-blooded_," he said, and she filed the thought away for later. As the argument threatened to descend into violence, Luce smiled, satisfied that the unfolding events would convince her home tutor that her classmate wasn't fit to be a mafia member in the least.

Ryohei smacked his fist into his palm. "I like this guy _to the extreme_! Recruit him, Luce Nero!"

"W-what?" she squeaked, stunned. _Why didn't it work? _She wondered. There wasn't anything in Colonello that reminded her of the mafia she had seen on TV. Colonello was loud, argumentative, passionate, hot-blooded…Luce's left eye twitched.

_He's just like Ryohei! _She realized, clutching her head in horror.

"Go over there and recruit him!" Luce found herself hurtling towards the group, landing in front of them on her stomach. She groaned and tried to get up. Had Ryohei _kicked_ her in the butt? An outstretched hand appeared in front of her, and she found it to be attached to a smirking third year with adorable sideburns and a fedora.

"Are you alright, Luce?" he asked. She smiled and gratefully accepted the hand, allowing herself to be pulled to her feet. Flushing, she tried to dust off her uniform and compose herself.

_This is the first time you're speaking to Reborn since he saw you in your underwear! Say something impressive! Intelligent! Awe-inspiring! _

"I slipped on a puddle," she said, then mentally groaned. That wasn't _quite_ what she had been going for. Reborn only nodded, then glanced over at Fon. His eyes narrowed slightly.

"You've befriended the transfer student," he stated coolly, and Luce wondered why he suddenly sounded distant. She was almost certain she saw a vein twitching in Reborn's cheek. _Maybe he doesn't like Fon-kun for some reason?_

"Ah, yes. Fon-kun is very nice once you get to know him."

Reborn opened his mouth to respond when the school bell rang. Bianchi grabbed the collars of the two boys and dragged them towards the building, nodding at Luce as both a goodbye and a warning. Luce tilted her head and tugged a little at her ponytail. Reborn's response to her friendship with Fon confused her. She wished she could find the courage that had consumed her when she had spoken to him after the fight with Mochida. It seemed to come and go within her.

Fon approached her, checking to make sure that she wasn't injured. Luce shook her head and vowed to herself to ask Reborn about it later. Ryohei waved and disappeared out the school gates, claiming he had some _extreme _business to take care of, leaving the two to make their way to class.

"So, Luce-san…that boy that helped you up, who is he?"

"Eh, I-I…Reborn is just a classmate! I don't like him that way!"

"Why, Luce-san, I never implied that you liked him in _any _way whatsoever."

"_Fon-kun_!"

* * *

The quiet in the classroom was surprisingly soothing as the two of them cleaned up after school. One thing she liked about Fon was that he knew when the time to talk was, and when was the time to just let the silence have its say. Luce wasn't the most talkative of people, and the idea of having someone around who wanted to chat all the time was just draining. Fon glanced up at the clock, started, and immediately put his broom away and grabbed his bag.

"I am so sorry, Luce-san, but I have to get to my part time job," he explained, looking guilty at leaving her alone to do the remaining work. Luce smiled and shook her head.

"Ah, it's fine Fon-kun. You need to support yourself," she replied. It was clear that the only person paying for Fon was Fon himself, which supported her theory that he didn't have any family. She decided to ask her mother tonight if she was alright with Fon eating over often – she couldn't imagine what kind of cheap, unhealthy food he was eating (Luce was a firm believer in a nutritious diet, often trying to foist vegetables on an unwilling Ryohei).

"What kind of job is it?" she asked.

"I'm working at a ramen shop. They were very impressed by my cooking skills." He waved and headed off. Luce waved back, then paused.

"Wait, Fon-kun, just remember not to add too much garlic!"

His faraway laughter was the only response she received, but it warmed her heart. Beaming to herself, she went back to work, humming happily off-key. Barely fifteen minutes after Fon's departure, the door to the classroom was thrown open, the sound as a loud as a gunshot in the quiet room. Luce yelped, whipping her broom around as though it were a weapon.

A blond, blue-eyed boy stared back at her, just as shocked, before recognition swept over his features. "Oh, it's just you, kora."

Luce wondered what he meant by that, since she was almost fully certain that he didn't even know her name. Quickly losing interest, he headed over to his desk and started rummaging through it, cursing quietly to himself. He turned and pawed through the contents of Reborn's desk, looking more and more frustrated. Luce debated whether she ought to ask if she could help him find what he was looking for. She barely knew Colonello, and while he didn't feel like a bad person, his loud, upfront attitude and popularity made her skittish of approaching him. _Conviction Luce, _she thought, _If you can befriend an assassin, you can ask a popular boy if he needs help. _

"Um, Colonello-kun?" she asked. He turned a little, looking at her, questioning. "Do you…do you need help looking for something?"

He blinked, clearly surprised, and scratched the back of his neck. "Uh, yeah."

She gave her most non-threatening smile. "What is it that you've lost?"

"That loser Reborn said he left his History essay on my table. I need to copy that thing or Moriyama-sensei's gonna have my ass, kora!" he snapped, clearly frustrated.

Luce bristled a little at the idea of Reborn being a loser, but decided that it was just the way Colonello and Reborn's friendship worked. The two appeared to be close, for all their arguing and competitiveness. She took a deep breath and tried to make a suggestion.

"The wind probably knocked it somewhere. Maybe, Colonello-kun, you could…look on that side of the room? And I could look over here?" she said, pointing and clutching the broom tight to her body like a shield. He nodded and complied. Luce looked under tables while Colonello boldly started checking through their classmates' desks, smirking and laughing at some of the things he found.

_Do I even want to know why Fon-kun has so much garlic in his desk? _

"You don't think someone could have stolen it?" she timidly asked.

"Who the hell would steal homework?" he shot back, catching Luce off guard. She wasn't used to dealing with people like Colonello, so unlike Fon in temperament.

She wrung her hands a little. "Um, somebody desperate to pass?"

He raised himself a bit off the ground from where he had been looking under tables and looked at her. "Nobody in class is _that_ crazy." Luce giggled a bit at that statement.

Colonello paused, as though rethinking his words. "Well, Bianchi's freaking insane. But she doesn't count."

Luce couldn't help it, she grinned. "Bianchi-san is crazy – crazy about Reborn," she said, then covered her mouth as though shocked something like that had managed to sneak out.

Colonello let out a bark of laughter. "Yeah, and not subtle about it. I don't know how the hell he can just ignore it." He paused.

"Eh, Colonello-kun, you look like you're going to be sick!"

"B-bad memories. You try having to eat Bianchi's food, kora!"

"Didn't Reborn tell you that I used some to wake up Haruna-sensei?"

"Che, I'm not surprised, that shit could raise the dead, kora!"

Luce burst out laughing, and couldn't understand why. It wasn't even all that funny. Colonello snorted, but he was smirking. It was different from the side-splitting laughter she'd shared with Fon. This was laughing simply because it felt right to laugh – to enjoy the sound of it. There was just something about Colonello that made her feel at ease, less afraid of her words. It was strange, because he was so different from her in that he seemed a person who didn't belong in the quiet.

He looked at her, as though considering something. "You're Luce, right?" She nodded. He gave her a lopsided grin. "You're okay."

She smiled. It didn't sound like much, but Luce felt that being 'okay' was a high compliment in Colonello's books. She sensed it somewhere, in that same place she couldn't name in her chest. And she realized she had earned someone's acknowledgement without the Dying Will Pill, without Ryohei, without needing to be a mafia boss. She had done it just by laughing, by offering to help out, by being Luce.

For once, just Luce had been enough.

She might have sputtered a little, and stammered out some reply, but inside, she felt brighter than ever. _Someone thinks I'm okay_, she thought. _**Me.**__ Luce. _She hadn't needed to be anything else. She felt tingly, like she'd just stuck her finger into an electric socket, but without the pain that came after.

In an effort to stop embarrassing herself, she swiftly started to look through the teacher's desk, and spotted the essay hidden under some loose papers. "Ah, I guess someone must have thought it was an essay Moriyama-sensei forgot," she said, holding out the offending paper. He took it and shoved it into his bag, thanking her.

Surprisingly, he waited for her to gather up her belongings and they headed out together. They walked side by side, Luce swinging her bag a little. He was nearly an entire foot taller than her, and she felt shorter than ever. Seeing her expression, he raised an eyebrow.

"What's with that face? I wasn't raised by wolves! I know how to be polite, kora!" he stated, and Luce laughed. She seemed to be laughing more lately, and she liked it. Colonello scowled, but lightened up a little when he saw she wasn't mocking him. "Che, so I heard you ripped out Mochida's hair while I was away? Guess it really is always the quiet ones."

Luce flushed. As much as the kendo showdown had brought so much good - compliments from a certain curly side burned classmate sprang to mind – she felt uncomfortable talking about it. It was so unlike something she would normally do and it was impossible to give a real explanation.

_Colonello-kun will probably think I'm crazy. _

"Um, well, I guess she just…upset me," she said weakly, looking at her feet. It was sounded lame even to her own ears.

"Cause she said Reborn was hers?" Colonello asked slyly, smirking at her. Luce displayed an accurate impersonation of a tomato.

"What? No! I-I…It's not like that all! Eh, you're as bad as Fon-kun!"

Colonello snickered as Luce sputtered next to him. _Why does everyone have to keep mentioning my crush? Is it __**that **__obvious? _Colonello gave her a light punch on the shoulder.

"Lighten up; I'm just messing with you, kora! Anyways, it's still cool what you did," he said.

"Ah, it's nothing compared to your shooting." Luce remembered having once seen him during a competition held in Namimori. The level of determination and passion she'd seen in him was awe-inspiring. People as driven as Colonello didn't live on every street corner, that was certain.

He made a motion with his shoulders. "I'm not _that _great."

Luce looked at him, confused. "But you win so many competitions! Everyone says you should've been captain!" She was envious of people like Colonello and Fon, who had found their centers and excelled at them. Luce knew she wasn't good at anything, except making a fool out of herself. She gave a sad sort of smile. "Then people acknowledge you," she murmured softly.

He caught her words, glancing over at her in surprise. "I mean, everyone really likes you, Colonello-kun, because of you're so good at shooting," she explained, waving her hands about as though in explanation.

He scratched the back of his neck; a gesture Luce sensed meant he was uncomfortable with the situation. "I don't really want that kind of attention, kora," he muttered, eyes straight ahead.

She tilted her head. She felt _something _inside him, a feeling she couldn't name that tugged her lips into a frown. If it had a color, she would say that it was gray. "Well, I'm sure at least that your parents are very proud of you," Luce amended.

She could've sworn it was a trick of the light, but his scowl seemed to deepen. "Yeah," he muttered, "They're real proud, kora."

Luce watched the tension in his shoulders, the tightness in his jaw, and understood a little. "Where are your parents, Colonello-kun?"

"They're in the Italian Navy. They were posted here awhile, then they were moved again, and ditched me here, kora."

Luce looked up at him. "Do you like it here, in Japan?"

He shrugged. "It's okay, I guess. I don't think I'll ever get used to it, kora."

For a time, they walked without speaking. She looked at him out of the corner of her eye as the sun began to sink towards the horizon. She wondered what kind of person Colonello really was. He'd seemed cocky, arrogant even when surrounded by people this morning, yet now she felt only loneliness emanating from him, a boy in a country that was not his own who kept reaching for acknowledgment from faraway parents. There was a tangle of emotions inside Colonello that she felt in her chest, and it surprised her.

_No one is ever quite what they seem…Isn't that what people always say?_

She coughed, and he glanced down at her. "Maybe…if you put in more effort, then, the important people, they'd acknowledge you?"

He looked at her sharply. "What made you say that?"

She smiled. "Just a feeling."

He tilted his head and looked at her for a long moment. "Che. Maybe you're right, kora."

They walked in silence after that, crossing the bridge that spanned the river that tracked through part of Namimori. Luce felt strange, offering advice like that. She had lived her whole life looking for acknowledgement of her existence. The difference was that she hadn't made an effort to earn it from others. She felt almost like a fraud. Colonello tapped her and she turned.

"I'm gonna go practice now. See ya, Luce!" he said over his shoulder as he headed off. The moment he was out of sight, Luce almost did a little hop of joy. She'd spoken and befriended a stranger without needing to be anything. No Ryohei, no Dying Will Bullet, no Mafia Boss stuff.

"I did something right," she whispered, and nearly skipped all the way home, humming off-key.

* * *

_Women_, Colonello decided, _were really strange_.

You either got wallflowers that could suddenly read minds, or total psychos like Bianchi and someone he didn't want to think too much about. He preferred the psychos – least you knew what to expect. He didn't know how to deal with someone like Luce who was sunshine and rainbows one minute and Little-Miss-Psychic the next. How had she _known_ what that he wanted his dad to acknowledge him?

Still, she'd made a good point. What she didn't know was that he'd been doing that for years, and it hadn't changed anything.

_Practice until they acknowledge you. Wish it were that simple. _

Holding back a yawn, he stuffed his hands deep into his pockets and sauntered towards his intended destination. He threaded past apartment blocks and old office buildings. The sun was setting, and people appeared around him, heading home or to blow off steam after work. Nobody bothered him, and that was just fine.

It didn't take him long to reach the shooting range. Nicknamed 'Happy Place', it was located in a small, squat building on the outskirts of the city proper. It was old and dingy but was a place filled with people you didn't want to mess with. Colonello had gone there for years after his dad, old friends with the owner, had let him in despite being completely underage. With his parents constantly absent because of the military, it'd become sort of a home he could run to when the going got tough.

Even if he technically wasn't supposed to be there until he was eighteen.

Colonello felt his brows pull into a frown. He'd walked this path a hundred times and could do it in his sleep, but finally standing outside the stone building and its faded sign, he was reminded of how much he'd been avoiding the place.

"Stupid," he muttered to himself, pushing through the double doors with little effort despite their weight. He was muscular for a fifteen year old, but you didn't grow up with military-crazed parents and come out a weakling. His dad's fanaticism for the military had extended to all parts of his life, including his only child, which was why, among other things, he was saddled with such a ridiculous name. Sometimes he wondered if his last name was for real, or if his dad had changed it deliberately.

_What idiot names their kid Colonel? And pairing it with such a shitty last name, kora._

The thought of his father instantly soured his mood. His father had attended the competition in Tokyo, watched him and then criticized every single thing he'd done. Colonello had done nothing but burn beneath his scorn in front of all his teammates and his coach.

"You could have gone to a military academy in Italy," his father had once said, "But you get yourself kicked out in one week. Our family has been in the military for generations, and you, you are a disgrace."

His father had wanted a son he could mold in his own image, and when that had turned out to be a failure, he'd dumped his son in a foreign country and went off. The old man would visit now then, mainly to point out every area in which Colonello was lacking, no matter how hard he worked. Why was he so desperate to earn that bastard's approval, anyways? It was like he was just waiting for his life to begin when his dad turned around and said, "You did good, son." That he needed it that much to feel validated. He didn't like the direction his thoughts were heading, and shoved them back into the darkest corners of his mind.

The smell that greeted Colonello open arriving had a smirk tugging at his lips – sweat, gunpowder, and some unidentifiable scent whose origin nobody could find. Almost like a home.

It felt damned good to be back.

"Heh, thought you were dead," the owner of the place, a retired military man from Japan, stated, looking up from his newspaper as he sat at the front desk. He raised one bushy eyebrow meaningfully. Colonello snorted, signing his name in the ledger, noting a familiar name that had another grin forming on his lips.

"I'm still holding out for that competition," he prodded. He was well aware that the owner of the place had been hell with a gun in his youth. Colonello could never resist a challenge. The man in question raised his eyebrows and smirked.

"Kid, you're a hundred years too early to start challenging me."

"Oi, watch it old man – you got decades on me. Your bones'll give out before you even reach the range," he retorted, stowing his bag in the dented steel lockers lined up against the wall.

The old man just shook his head. "Keep dreaming kid. Now scram."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll get you someday, kora!" he called, heading into the back of the building. He tried not to dwell too long on the fact that the owner – nobody had actually asked his name, they was what they called him – had easily agreed to a competition with a certain female shooter when she was sixteen. It didn't matter if he lost, what mattered was that somebody good thought Colonello was skilled enough to be worthy competition.

He grabbed one of his favorite weapons – a rifle – and climbed the stairs to the upper levels that were guaranteed to be empty. The feel of the gun in his hand made him feel energized. Being in the range was being _alive_.

And Colonello hadn't felt that in a while.

* * *

"That's as far as you can hit? I thought I trained you better than that, _rookie_."

Colonello glanced up to see a woman with long shaggy blue hair, brown eyes and red burn scars across her left cheek approach. Her outfit – brownish red tank top, tight black minishorts, black boots - sidetracked his train of thought into a decidedly perverted place. He quashed it as best he could and grinned toothily at her.

"Hey, Lal. Nice short shorts."

Lal Mirch, three years older than him with a temper like a hurricane, grabbed his collar and whacked him several times across the face. _Why was I happy to see her name, again? _He wondered, wincing at his bruised cheeks. This was bringing back memories of her tutoring, back when she was sixteen and he was just a snot-nosed thirteen year old who spent more time hitting on her than training. It still confused him how someone shorter and smaller than him could hit so damn hard.

_The smaller you are, the more psycho you are? Yeah, that's probably it, kora. _

"How many times do I have to tell you; I don't care if it looks uncool, hold the rifle properly or else you won't hit anything!" she snapped, shaking him a little. Colonello shouldered the rifle and rested one hand on her head, which she promptly shoved off.

"Ah, Lal, so you admit that I look cool when I shoot? I knew this day would come when you confess your feelings for me!" he said teasingly, and was answered by an incredulous sputter.

"Fe-feelings for you? Not if you were the last man on the planet!" she snapped, meeting his eyes with a glare that would have singed any smart man who had a strong desire to live a long, peaceful life. "And don't change the subject!"

"I thought the subject was your blatant interest in me – _owww_, was that really necessary, kora?!"

"Yes. Now pay attention!"Groaning a little, Colonello allowed her to commandeer his gun and watched as she pressed a button to move the target back and settled into position. She swiftly riddled it full of holes, all lethal shots. Colonello was impressed. "Like so. Now you do it."

Following her lead, he copied her position. Roughly, she readjusted him like a shop dummy, then nodded, satisfied. His mind, wandering a little at the idea of Lal's hands on his body, snapped back to attention when she waved her hand in front of his face. Focusing, he allowed the world to narrow down to just the target, and the straight path to it. He breathed and pulled the trigger.

He stood, and could tell instantly that he had missed. Both he and Lal were blessed with fantastic eyesight, and he didn't have to bring the target forward to know the bullet had only grazed the target's arm.

He swore colorfully in Italian. Half the reason he'd been avoiding this place was because he knew that once he started moving the target beyond middle school level, there was no way he could hit.

Lal shook her head. "And you think you can challenge the old man out front? You can't even beat me, _rookie_!"

"You want to put that to the test, kora?" he snapped, rising to his full height, to which her brows raised and her hip jutted out in a way that was momentarily distracting, but he pushed the feeling down brutally.

"Please. If you can't even hit that, you aren't close to my level! Challenge me when you have the skills to back it up!" she stated, her expression hard and disgusted. It was the same way his father looked at him.

Lal was a prodigy, a top-ranking student at every military academy she'd ever attended and widely believed to be a candidate for the Italian Special Forces sometime in the future. He knew she didn't consider them to be friends; just instructor and student and that was as far as it would go. No matter what he did, Colonello could never catch up to her. Never win her respect enough so that she'd finally see that he wasn't a little kid anymore and start taking him seriously.

She would never acknowledge him.

"Like you'd agree! You'll just tell me I'm still not good enough and go practice, kora!" Her eyes widened for a split second, then narrowed into slits.

"What's with this attitude?" she hissed out, hands inches from smacking him again. Colonello realized that he was pushing it. He ran a head down his face.

"Crap, I don't know what I'm saying. I'm sorry Lal. I'm just frustrated, kora," he muttered, knowing it was a weak apology at best.

She whacked him, hard across the face. "Don't you ever say stupid stuff like that again!"

He massaged his jaw and forced a grin. He didn't know like that this was wearing down on him so much lately. Trying to act normal, he slung on arm around her shoulder and she tried to shrug him off. "Sure thing, Lal. Anyways, I gotta go. Try not to miss me too much, kora!"

"I-idiot! Who-who'd miss you?"

He laughed, let go and headed off. Winding up Lal was always fun, because she took the bait so easily. He'd hit on her ever since he met her, mainly because he'd been thirteen and hormonal and he considered her the hottest woman on the planet, but also because his attitude and teasing irritated her. He didn't want to dwell too long on the fact that he was beginning to think about her in a way that went beyond teenage hormones.

It wasn't like Lal would ever consider him anyways.

Distracted, in the dim light, he missed the foot of the stairs and for a few terrifying seconds, he was falling through the air. Then he hit the bottom step in an awkward position, and pain exploded in his left wrist. He heard Lal running towards him, calling his name. His wrist felt funny. Were wrists _supposed _to bend like that?

Lal reached him and crouched next to him, examining it. She swore under her breath in Italian. "This looks nasty. You might not be able to shoot for a while."

It felt like the ceiling had caved in on his head.

* * *

The moment she entered the school compound, she heard the whispers. Normally Luce didn't really pay attention to these kinds of things, but it was different this time. The whispers floated over, and stopped her cold.

"Did you hear? Colonello was training yesterday and sprained his wrist really badly! He won't be able to shoot for a while!"

Luce's heart nearly stopped. She had told him to practice more. _It can't be my fault…Could it? _She tipped her head back and looked up at the sky, trying to think… Her eyes widened. There was someone sitting on the edge of the roof. It looked like…Her breath caught.

_What is Colonello-kun doing up there? It's dangerous to go so close to the edge! He couldn't be planning anything…could he?_

She didn't even stop to think. She ran to the stairwell, taking the steps two at a time. The distance seemed to stretch out into miles. Blood pounded in her ears. It didn't even matter if it wasn't her fault. She flung the door to the roof open and screamed.

"Colonello-kun, DON'T!"

He started, nearly falling off. He looked at her and blinked. "Luce? What're you doing here?"

She suddenly felt foolish. She clutched the straps of her bag. "I-I-I thought…since you were sitting there…right on the edge…that you were going to jump. Because of your wrist."

He gaped at her. "You thought I was going to _jump off a building _because of a sprained wrist, kora? _Really_?"

Luce toed the ground a little and coughed, going red. "Well…shooting is important to you, isn't it? So I just thought that…you'd be…upset?"

He laughed. "Give me at least a little credit!" He frowned a little. "I mean, I was upset. But it's not the end of the world. The doc said I'll be fine within a week, kora."

She let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding and smiled. "Good." She paused. "Why are you up here, then?"

He scowled. "I'm sick of everyone pitying me."

A part of Luce wanted to nod and run away and leave Colonello to himself. But guilt still gnawed at her. She caught a glimpse of his bandaged wrist and couldn't help but feel that she had led him to it. _I told him to practice more, _she thought, _If I hadn't…then…maybe he wouldn't have gone to practice. Maybe he would have just gone home and copied the essay and everything would be alright. _

So she stood there, and tried to find her voice again. He didn't tell her to leave, and she sensed that he wasn't hostile towards her presence. It didn't make it any easier to speak.

"Um, Colonello-kun?" she said. He turned his head a little at her voice. "I can't help thinking…that this is my fault. When I told you yesterday…to practice more…that wasn't what I should have said."

"It's fine," he said shortly, "It's not like you pushed me down the stairs, kora."

She felt like pulling at her hair. "But it wasn't what I should have I said! Oh…I'll just go," she murmured, losing confidence, "See you in class."

She turned on her heel and made to leave.

"Wait!" His fingers caught the back of her shirt, and Luce felt herself tip backwards. The chain-link fence that separated roof from ledge, old, rusted and weather-beaten, ripped apart with a sickening screech of metal as she impacted it, sending her crashing into a surprised Colonello.

Then they were falling.

* * *

Colonello realized they were going to die. They were seven stories above hard concrete with nothing to break their fall. His life flashed before his eyes, which didn't take very long, because most of it wasn't worth remembering. But some of it was.

He remembered how he felt the first time he'd learnt to shoot. The feeling of triumph when he won a competition. Meeting Lal and all that had happened after. Hanging out with Reborn and Bianchi, and Luce.

He wondered if he was supposed to have regrets at this moment. And yet there were none. The acknowledgement of his father, suddenly just a small, blustering man, seemed so insignificant, so unnecessary. And Lal… It'd been enough, just being around her.

"CATCH, LUCE!"

The sound shocked him out of his thoughts. He twisted around a little to see a white-haired baby and a kangaroo perched on the roof throw what looked like a bottle at Luce. _If this is a hallucination, it's a really weird one. _Luce caught it, ripped the lid off and swallowed something inside it. And then something happened that would change Colonello's life forever.

Her clothes ripped off in an explosion of pent-up pressure, her forehead igniting with a bright orange flame. She twisted around in mid-air, and he was shocked to see her eyes glowing with power, her face serene and confident, unlike the stammering girl he'd met only yesterday. _Who knew Luce actually had tracts of land under all that – __**SHUT UP BRAIN, KORA!**_

"SAVE COLONELLO WITH MY DYING WILL!"

And then she swooped downwards, catching up to him, her arms encircling his body, as she landed on her feet with a loud _thud_. Colonello would never admit it, but he was pretty certain that he had screamed. Like a little girl.

It took him a few seconds to realize that Luce was carrying him bridal style. In her underwear. And he was clinging to her neck like an octopus.

"Um, Colonello-kun? I can't breathe," she choked out, and she was the old Luce again. "And you're kind of heavy."

He let go just as her arms gave out, sending him sprawling on the ground. He gaped up at her as she rushed about collecting her clothes and ducked behind a tree to put them back on. His brain was slowly trying to rewire itself, and it wasn't really working. A now dressed Luce waved her hand in front of his face.

"Colonello-kun? Are you alright?" she asked timidly.

"Why was your forehead on fire? Why was there on a baby on a kangaroo? Why did your clothes fly off, kora?" he demanded, sounding just the tiniest bit distressed. Luce bit her lip and twiddled her thumbs.

At that exact moment, the baby and the kangaroo came hopping over. "That was _extremely _good work, Luce! And you've recruited a new subordinate!"

"Subordinate?" Colonello asked, feeling like somebody had just pulled a rug out from under him. It was though someone had just told him that up and down had switched places.

"Eh, don't listen to him! He's…someone I babysit! With a really hyperactive imagination!" Luce stammered, now looking more and more nervous. Colonello didn't believe her for a second – she was just too transparent a person. He bent down and looked the kid in the eye, daring him with one look to lie to his face.

"What's the _real story_, kora?"

"My name is Sasagawa Ryohei, the World's Greatest Boxing Hitman! I'm training Luce Nero to be a mafia boss _to the extreme_!" the baby declared proudly. Colonello snorted.

"You're joking." He looked at Luce's stricken face. "You're _not _joking, are you."

She shook her head sadly. And then a wild story spilled out about how she was actually the heir to a mafia family and that she was being tutored by a baby who gave her magic pills that unlocked her potential. And the Chinese guy who hung out with her was her subordinate (those were the baby's words; Luce had insisted he was her friend). Colonello listened, knowing that this was all totally insane, and yet there was just something about Luce's face that made him think she was telling the truth.

And despite everything, he believed her. Somewhat.

"Thanks," he told her and grinned, "For saving my life. _Boss_." She started to stammer out a reply, but he cut her off. "And what were you gonna tell me just now?"

Colonello watched her take a deep breath and square her shoulders a little. "Yesterday, I told you…that if make an effort, then people will acknowledge you, right?"

He nodded. "I gave you advice like I knew what I was saying, but... I've never done that. I never tried. And then…when I did do something, when I defeated Mochida, people acknowledged me…but then they just forgot again, because it wasn't really _me_ they wanted, but…the other me. I'm not making any sense, am I?"

She rushed on before he could interrupt her. "I guess, what I'm trying to say is that…If somebody won't acknowledge you and wants you to be someone else, then…maybe you don't need their acknowledgment," she said and smiled, "And maybe there are already people who acknowledge you. You just don't see it yet."

Colonello prodded the back of her head and she yelped, looking at him. "You're really cheesy, kora," he stated, because honestly, it sounded like something out of a stupid shonen manga. He paused, considering her words. "You really think that?"

Luce looked at the sky for a second, then smiled at him. "Yes," she whispered, "I really do."

And he remembered those last thoughts he'd had as he plummeted towards the ground. So what if his father didn't acknowledge him? Colonello sure as hell didn't want to be his father. In those moments, the tall, uniformed man with a loud voice seemed only an old, blustering man that was still clinging on to the old glory of his family line. He didn't need the acknowledgement of someone like that. If it took remaking himself to get his old man's praise…then it wasn't worth it.

_There are already people who acknowledge you. _

He was good enough to get Reborn, and Bianchi and Luce and everyone on his team's friendship and acceptance. And Lal… Lal had stayed with him, at the hospital. She had walked home with him. Before she had left, she'd looked at him, and spoke to him as he moped about being out of commission for a week or longer.

"You'll be fine, Colonello, you can make up for lost time. You're driven, and you're a fast learner."

And of course he had teased her for worrying about him and she'd yelled at him that she was just making sure he didn't do anything stupid, and it hadn't clicked then. But he got it now.

Lal acknowledged his skills. Maybe she always had.

And finally things felt like they'd fallen into place, like his life was really starting to begin, and he'd been stupid for such a long time. _Guess Lal was right when she said I didn't think enough_, he thought, but this time the thought didn't rip a little into him. His life began when he wanted it to, not when an old man told him he was good enough.

He glanced at Luce, bickering with the baby, and knew how to pay her back for this.

* * *

Luce sensed Colonello falling into step next to her. They'd missed the first bell, and were now hopelessly late for class. She found she didn't really care as they slowly made their way there. And she'd meant what she'd said, meant it for both Colonello, as well as herself.

_I don't need the world to look at me. There are already people looking at me. _

Her mother, and her sisters. Reborn had seen her a long time ago, he had always seen her. It had just taken her a while to realize that. Fon. Colonello.

Luce had always been enough.

Luce felt rather than saw Colonello look at her for a long moment, sizing her up, trying to figure her out. And she felt that tangle of emotions in him smooth itself out and all the parts find their places. She was glad.

"Oh, Colonello-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you. For telling me I'm okay."

He shook his head at this. "You really don't have anyone besides that spacey Chinese guy, do you?" He paused. "Guess that needs to change, kora."

And she knew what he meant when he said that. Luce wasn't sure why she knew these things, but she wasn't afraid of the knowledge. Silence fell on the two of them, and there was nothing awkward or awful about it. Luce smiled, and at first it made the knot of her worry in her stomach hurt, but then it untangled itself, and the hurt eased.

_Like with Fon-kun… _

"Ah, Luce-san. So this is where you've been." Fon appeared on the stairwell, looking at her with worry. He eyed Colonello warily. "Is everything alright?"

She beamed at him. "Everything's just fine, Fon-kun. Really."

She saw him visibly relax. Colonello raised one eyebrow at Fon. "You're the transfer student, right?"

Fon nodded and bowed politely at him. Colonello stared at him. "Why the hell are you smiling like that, kora?"

"I feel like smiling."

"Okay smart-ass, then do you ever stop?"

"Yes, when I _don't _feel like smiling."

Colonello ground his teeth in frustration while Fon continued to smile pleasantly. Luce laughed. She didn't know why, but just seeing the two of them act like a bunch of silly boys made her heart feel lighter. She didn't want it to end. The three of them walked in step together, Luce in the middle, and the last bit of worry unsnarled itself and found its center.

"Ah, by the way, Luce-san, who was that lady screaming hysterically just now?"

"Not me, kora!"

* * *

At lunchtime the next day, Colonello waved to Reborn and Bianchi and told them he had something he needed to. They were probably welcome, but he figured it'd be better not to give Luce a heart attack. The girl was head over heels for Reborn, and as amusing as it would be to watch her go red in the face, it wasn't the right time. He hung out all the time with Reborn and Bianchi, and they could afford to not have him around for a little while.

'Sides, he'd said he was going to be Luce's friend, and he'd be damned if he went back on his word. Even if it meant that he'd have to hang around that annoying Chinese guy and the loud baby. He headed to the roof, pushing open the door to see Luce and Fon sitting there, waiting. Luce smiled and waved, and Fon bobbed his head as a form of hello.

"Hurry up Colonello-kun, before Fon-kun eats all the cookies!"

Said transfer student currently had three in his mouth, and smiled guilty. Colonello sat down, batted aside Fon's hand and tried one of her creations. Compared to Bianchi's stuff, it was like eating a slice of heaven. "Why aren't you in the baking club, kora?"

She went red. "Um, after the little…incident in Home Economics…I was banned from the Baking Club. And the Cooking Club .And the Kendo Club. Fon-kun too."

Fon pointed to himself with an expression of utmost innocence, as thought to say _who me?_ Colonello's eyes narrowed. "What incident?"

"He poisoned Haruna-sensei."

"What?!"

"They only had circumstantial evidence, Luce-san. It could have been _anyone_."

Colonello listened to the two of them talking over each other, each trying to tell their own side of the story, and smiled. It was different from being with Reborn and Bianchi. He bit into another cookie.

Good different.

* * *

**note4: **_Fucile _means 'rifle' in Italian. Paired with Colonello, you get the lovely 'Colonel Rifle'. Poor, poor Colonello.  
**note5: **Next up, pervert doctors and Reborn makes another grand appearance. I'm not doing the Daily Life Arc in exact order, and I hope that's alright with everyone.  
**note6: **And thus, Colonello joins the family. I hope it was satisfactory, unless of course, my handling of Colonello and Lal was so atrocious you've gone blind. Leave a review telling me what you think?


	4. Target 4: A Deadly Disease

**disclaimer: **Still don't own Katekyo Hitman Reborn!

**note: **I'm really sorry about how long it took for me to write this chapter (well, not that long compared to a month, but anyways), I had a lot of difficulty making it work. And hello to all new readers!  
**note2: **Now, in regards to questions. Firstly, Giotto is still Vongola Primo. In this alternate universe, he is Luce's ancestor. The Varia is intact, aside from the Mist member. Secondly, I've gotten a lot of people telling me not to kill Tsuna. I'll admit I smiled evilly and said "We shall see." Lastly, and most importantly, I will not be answering questions that constitute spoilers. I may give hints, but that's all. Please be patient.  
**note3: **As for actual questions: **MillionDollarNinja**, that was a joke, it wasn't actually Tsuna. **Fantasy Man 2**, Viper and Mammon are the same person, as is canon. **Doragonkasai - Tsubasa**, Ryohei is the World's Greatest Boxing-Hitman, not Hitman, and he's probably exaggerating a little. Or maybe my blatant preference for Ryohei over Hibari is showing - I'm kidding! The First Gen-Tenth Gen Xerox trope has been kicked into the ground. It wouldn't make sense to claim they look alike or are alike personality-wise. Which I find more fun, because I get the feeling Verde would hate Lampo and Alaude would hate Skull.  
**note4: **And now for the actual story. Note that I've extended the time it takes for Skullitis to kill someone (it originally takes one hour). To allow for shenanigans.

* * *

**Target 4: A Deadly Disease **or **A Rather Dubious Doctorate**

* * *

In the middle of a neatly organized room, on a quiet Saturday morning in early May, a slight groan emerged from a lump of blankets and comforters. A pale arm stuck itself out, and Luce's eyes fluttered open a little. The curtains were a open a crack, bringing in a sliver of sunlight that illuminated her dresser, the clock, her arm, a strange skull mark on her hand… Sighing sleepily, she snuggled deeper into her cocoon and was about to go back to sleep again when her eyes popped open.

_Skull-shaped mark?_

Throwing off her coverings, she got out of bed and yanked the curtains open. Blinking a little in the brightness, she raised her hand to get a good look at what she'd seen. There, in the middle of her palm, was a wispy looking black skull with narrowed, glaring eyes and sharp white teeth. Her first thought was that Aria and Uni were playing a prank on her. Luce tried rubbing at the skull, but it wouldn't come off. Still not quite believing it, she rubbed harder, to the same effect.

Confused, she rushed to the bathroom shared amongst the three sisters and ran her hand under water. The skull stubbornly remained, giving her fang-toothed grin.

"What is this?" she asked it. In the back of her mind, the first flickers of panic made themselves known.

"Skullitis! An _extremely _rare, incurable disease! You're going to die, Luce!" Ryohei yelled, coming up behind her and jumping on the bathroom counter. She gaped at him.

"Y-you're j-joking, right Ryohei?" she stammered, disbelieving. He slowly shook his head, frowning slightly. "How did I get this disease?" she asked, still not fully convinced that this wasn't some elaborate joke.

"When you take the Dying Will Pill ten times, you get Skullitis _to the extreme_! That's what the Ninth told me!" he explained, after quickly consulting his battered notebook. He looked concerned.

Luce paused. "But I didn't take the Dying Will Pill ten times…" She trailed off, trying to count it out. Twice the day she'd met Ryohei, once to defeat Fon, another to save Colonello. That only made four. She racked her memory, fingers extending with each recollection.

* * *

"But Ryohei, how could I possibly save that cat? That tree's three times my height…SAVE THE CAT WITH MY DYING WILL!"

* * *

"Wait, Ryohei, are you sure it's a good idea to use the Pill just to carry all this food and boxing stuff you made me buy…CARRY RYOHEI'S THINGS WITH MY DYING WILL!"

* * *

"I mean, I should probably help that old lady, shouldn't I? It's just…HELP THAT OLD LADY CROSS THE STREET WITH MY DYING WILL!"

* * *

"I saved cats stuck in trees twice… You made me carry all the food and boxing videos you bought thrice…And yesterday I helped that old lady who wasn't very grateful and hit me with her walker." Luce looked at her ten outstretched fingers.

_Ten times… I can't really…be dying? _

"If the Ninth told you about the disease, then he must have told you about the cure, _right_?" she demanded, shaking the hitman a little, who was now uncharacteristically quiet. A sense of true panic was beginning to fill her. How could she be _dying_? _Don't think about it Luce_, she thought, _Focus on a solution. There has to be one! _

Luce ripped the notebook out of his tiny hands and starting rifling through it, scanning the messy handwriting for any sign of a cure. She flipped through, brushing aside anything that seemed remotely unhelpful.

"Give Kangaryuu a bath, no… People that may try to kill Luce one day, not important right now… How to Confess to Kurokawa Hana after I Break the Curse, Ryohei, who is…. _AHA!_"

She skimmed over a hastily written entry that contained most of what Ryohei had already told her, then stopped over the most beautiful word to her at that moment. _Cure_. And penned next to it, in messy, lopsided script were two words. _Pervert Doctor. _

"What is 'pervert doctor' supposed to mean, Ryohei?" she shrieked, rattling him around hard enough that she would later swear to have heard his brain hitting the insides of his head. The gloves were off, and Luce was beginning to feel a little hysterical. Ryohei looked at her with worry in her eyes – although the effect was a little ruined by how much his eyeballs were spinning from the shaking.

"I can't remember!" he declared with frustration, clutching his head. Luce buried her face in her hands, but before she could do anything, she felt a tickling sensation on her infected hand. Glancing down, she took in a white speech bubble extending from the skull's mouth and the embarrassing message contained within. _**I fake illness on the days when we have to get our shots**_, the skull said nastily to her.

"Why is the skull talking?"

"When you have Skullitis, your deepest secrets and shames appear on your body until you die! You embarrass yourself to death _to the extreme_!"

She gaped, eyes flicking back to her arm. On a cue, a second speech bubble materialized._** I accidentally killed the class pet in fourth grade but told everyone that he ran away**_, the skull hissed.

"You killed your class pet?" Ryohei asked, scandalized, putting one protective fist out over Kangaryuu.

"It was an accident! I didn't mean to kill Mr. Fluffy!" she insisted. Ryohei lowered his fist a little. Luce ran her fingers through her hair, thinking furiously.

_I don't want to die! Especially not with all these horrible secrets written all over my body! _

She grabbed Ryohei's collar and wailed. "What am I going to do?"

* * *

An hour later, Luce was sitting at the kitchen table, drowning her sorrows with milk and cookies. She'd reached the important stage of learning of your impending demise – grief. Ryohei, ever helpful, was patiently listening as she slammed down her mug and launched into a long-winded story about her childhood dream to become a ballerina.

"And now I'll never get a chance to make it happen!" she finished, burying her face in her arms and sobbing at the injustice of it all. Ryohei absentmindedly patted her shoulder, busy trying to remember what 'pervert doctor' meant. Luce ignored him and shoved another cookie into her mouth. At that moment, the doorbell rang. She waited for someone else to get it, then remembered that she was home alone that morning. Slowly pushing herself to her feet, she opened the door to find two familiar figures.

"Oh," she sniffled, rubbing her eyes, "It's you two."

"Luce-san, is something wrong? Why are you crying?"/ "Why is your face covered in snot, kora?"

At their questioning, Luce broke into another fresh round of tears. "I'm…going…to…die," she hiccupped, as the two boys exchanged frightened glances. Quickly taking control, Fon shepherded Luce into the house and sat her down on the sofa. Colonello helpfully handed her a box of tissues and after several minutes, she found the voice to explain her problem.

"Ryohei says I have eight hours left – well, seven now," she explained, running her fingers along the blooming speech bubbles. Another humiliating secret had popped up – _**I'm stuck on the 7**__**th**__** row of the multiplication table. **_"And he still can't remember what the cure is or what 'pervert doctor' means!"

She hung her head. Colonello cracked his knuckles and grinned at her. "Then we'll just have to start looking for one ourselves, kora," he declared.

She blinked at him, then turned to look at Fon. "I agree completely. We cannot simply sit here and wait for Ryohei-san to remember," he stated firmly, smiling at her.

"B-but - " she stammered, confused. Why were they doing this?

"You think I'm just gonna let you die? Forget it, kora!"

"I cannot allow such a thing to happen either."

Luce glanced back and forth between the two boys, staring at her with eyes full of determination and care, and felt warmth expand within her in the nameless place in her chest._ They're not giving up on me_, she thought. At last, she understood what it meant to have real friends. Fresh tears pricked at her eyes. "Y-you guys," she started.

"H-hey, don't start crying again!"

* * *

Many minutes later, Fon was busy mixing together some kind of ancient Chinese herbal remedy, while Colonello ransacked the medicine cabinet, dumping anything that seemed remotely useful on the table. Luce sat at the kitchen table, having pulled on a black jacket over her long white dress to hide the growing number of speech bubbles, clutching Kangaryuu to her chest like a stuffed toy while Ryohei sat in front of her, staring at his notebook. She was glad that they had both decided to come to her house that day. She wasn't sure what she would have done without them.

She didn't want to be alone this time.

Colonello held up a bottle of cough syrup. "Your throat hurt? No?" He placed it back and pulled out a bottle of pills. "Aspirin…wait, isn't this the kind girls take when it's that time? You're not…" He went slightly pink.

She shook her head and her smile took on a slightly terrifying edge. Colonello hastily shoved the bottle of pills as far back into the cabinet as possible. Fon poured his concoction into a large mug which he set in front of Luce, who eyed it wearily. It had the exact same consistency and appearance of sewage, and there it looked like there were _fumes _rising from it.

"One of my masters taught me this recipe many years ago. He said it could cure all illness," Fon explained, gesturing at her to drink it. Colonello squeezed her shoulder and gave her a very pitying glance. Luce really didn't want to die, and Fon's 'medicine' looked more like it would speed up the process than fix it. Though it was sweet that he had made it especially for her. Fon, completely oblivious, gave her an expectant look. "Not to worry, Luce-san, it tastes exactly like tea."

_If it really __**can **__cure everything… I don't have much to lose…_

Not wanting to hurt Fon's feelings, she took a deep breath, bravely raised the mug and downed its contents in one gulp. She choked a little, gagged and coughed, then gave Fon a slightly nauseated smile._ Are Fon's taste buds broken? _She wondered, because if anything it tasted almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea.

"Yes, Fon-kun, just like tea," she lied sweetly, and he beamed.

They waited a long while, but the speech bubbles stubbornly remained. Worse, they looked like they were _multiplying_. _**I couldn't sleep without a teddy bear until I was fourteen**_, the skull taunted and she went red in the face at their expressions. Fon was staring at her strangely, while Colonello looked like he was biting his tongue and trying very hard not to laugh. She prayed deeply that they would find a cure before even worse secrets and shames appeared.

Ryohei looked at her. "So that's why you were clinging to Garyuu in your sleep last week!"

"What? I wasn't!" This would have sounded like a legitimate defense if she hadn't been hugging the poor kangaroo to her chest at that moment. Luce rubbed the kangaroo's ears gently when it made a protesting noise at its treatment. Colonello rolled his eyes.

"Forget all this zen healing crap. _This _will definitely solve the problem." He slammed a mug filled with an oozing green liquid in front of her. It frothed violently and a strange smell wafted up. Luce recoiled a little.

"Um, Colonello-kun, what exactly is that?" she asked warily, not entirely certain if she wanted to know. The liquid bubbled ominously in response.

He grinned. "I mixed together all the medicine that I thought would help! So if one doesn't work, the others will, kora!"

"Don't many of those bottles specify _not _taking them all at the same time?" Fon interjected, to which the sniping enthusiast gave a sour look.

"Please. What's the worst that could happen?"

* * *

"Wow, I didn't know you could get vomit that color, kora!" Fon gave him a very sinister smile. "I mean, sorry, Luce."

Luce slowly raised herself up from where she'd been crouching by the once pristine white bowl and tried to smile. Her stomach rolled a little, but otherwise behaved itself, and she shakily got to her feet. The 'medicine' had stayed in her body all of three minutes before it promptly insisted that it much preferred being outside and sent her running to the bathroom. Her sides still hurt and her throat felt disgusting. _I think_, Luce thought wryly, _I just found out what kind of drinks they serve in Hell_.

Fon quickly supported her back to the kitchen and sat her down. Colonello handed her a glass of water to remove the aftertaste of the drink, which she gratefully accepted.

"It's…alright, Colonello-kun," she said, noting his guilty expression, because she knew he hadn't intended for that to happen. He nodded, but the expression remained. Luce glanced down at her arms. Disappointingly, the skulls and speech bubbles remained. Another bloomed at that thought. **_I've had a crush on Reborn since the first year of Middle School,_ **the skull taunted. Colonello raised his eyebrows.

"How is that a secret? _Everyone _knows that!"

_**Before I met Fon-kun, Reborn was the only guy I've ever talked to in Middle School,**_the skull continued. Fon and Colonello sort of looked at each other, then at her, then seemed to decided that it was better to just not say anything. Luce cleared her throat, face burning, and reminded them that there were only six hours left. She looked at them. "What do we do now?"

Fon frowned slightly, then his eyes brightened. "Perhaps, Luce-san, this calls for slightly more…drastic action."

* * *

"Aaaa…ee…_OW_!"

"Now, now, Luce-san, it's not that bad."

Fon very carefully stuck another needle into Luce's arm. She whimpered and he shook his head a little at her behavior. Sometimes it still amused him that the future boss of the Vongola, one of the most feared people in the underworld, was an ordinary middle schooler with a massive fear of needles. She made the same noise when he stuck another needle in and flinched away a little. He knew it wasn't _really _hurting her, and that the pain was mostly in her head, but he still felt a bit bad. He didn't like seeing Luce in pain.

_Well, at least I didn't accidentally poison her…_

He glanced at Colonello, who was sitting across from them, grudging holding up a diagram of acupuncture meridians. He'd made it clear that he didn't believe in any of Fon's 'magic healing' (Fon had stopped trying to explain that it wasn't magic an hour ago) but at least he wasn't causing any trouble. Yet.

Fon hadn't thought particularly highly of Colonello when they'd first met, but he seemed to have a genuine desire to help Luce now, which had raised him a few notches in Fon's book. Still, he found that the two of them contrasted sharply, not least in their choice of dress – Fon in his traditional, long sleeved red shirt, black pants and slippers, and Colonello in his green army jacket, blue t-shirt, jeans and black boots. For the moment though, they were united in their search for a cure for Luce.

The three of them sat in the cramped living room of Fon's apartment, located on the outskirts of Namimori. It had three rooms and no corridor – a small living room cum kitchen with dusty brown curtains over the windows, a tiny bedroom that felt more like a broom closet, and a bathroom. Fon wasn't complaining though. He had lived in worse, and the rent was cheap and the landlord hadn't asked any questions. What concerned him more was Luce and Colonello's reaction to it.

Colonello had raised him eyebrows and commented that the place looked like a dump - which was untrue, Fon had done his best to make it feel homey by adding his own personal touches, like the dragon painting on the wall. Luce had said nothing, but there was a look on her face that suggested she was worried about him living here. He had wisely decided not to tell her that the heating didn't work very well and he wasn't sure what it would be like come winter.

He frowned and swiftly returned his attention to the matter at hand. His living situation was not the problem now. What mattered was making sure that Luce did not die. Fon didn't want to think of what would happen to him if Luce died. Where would he go, then? Back to killing? Back to the person he once had been?

The people he had worked with would not forgive him turning their back on them. They would surely try to kill him once Luce was dead. Where was there left for him to go?

_Luce-san is __**not **__going to die_, he reminded himself firmly.

"_Ow_! Fon-kun…are you sure this works?" she asked, eyeing the stack of needles at Fon's feet with trepidation. She had shed her jacket to allow him to work more easily, and he had pulled back the long sleeves of his red Chinese-collared shirt so that they would not get in the way.

"Trust me, Luce-san," he said calmly, giving her a reassuring smile, "I am positive this will work."

"Maybe you should look at this again," Colonello stated, raising the diagram for emphasis. Fon gave it another look, judging the correct position, then inserted the next needle. Luce yelped, nearly jerking her arm away from where he was gripping it.

"You _have_ done this before, right?" Colonello asked, watching him like a hawk. Fon nodded, feeling rather insulted that the other boy thought he was some kind of amateur. He would never have offered to do this to Luce if he wasn't certain he was capable.

"Even if it doesn't work, Colonello-kun, we still have five hours left to think of another plan," Luce said lightly, smiling. Yet Fon could detect a flicker of anxiety in her eyes. Their deadline was drawing ever closer. They had left Ryohei at Luce's house so that he could continue racking his memory.

_And what if he doesn't remember – No. _

Luce's arms were beginning to look like pincushions. Colonello tapped his fingers against his leg, clearly bored watching the slow progress of the treatment. Fon counted silently in his head to five. On cue, Colonello grunted, stood up, crouched down beside Luce, and started reading the secrets written on her arms. She made a noise and tried to bat him away, but he grabbed her arm and steadied it. He chuckled a few times, then paused, raising his eyebrows.

"_**I'm scared of goldfish**_. How the hell can you be afraid of goldfish, kora?" he demanded, pointing accusingly at a speech bubble near her elbow.

Luce went pink. "But, but their eyes are so…big and unnatural! T-they've got an evil look in their eyes!" she insisted. Fon resisted the urge to make an undignified snort. It all seemed so ridiculous – Luce was dying, and here they were discussing malevolent aquarium life.

Colonello stared at her. "Evil goldfish," he deadpanned.

"Yes," Luce said earnestly.

"If they're evil, why are people keeping them us pets?"

"They've…tricked us into believing they're harmless?"

"Uh-huh." Colonello looked at Fon, who kept his eyes on his task.

"I don't know and I have no opinion," he responded, selecting two new needles. Colonello reached to look at another secret. Fon inserted a needle into Luce's shoulder, and stuck another in Colonello's leg for a good measure.

* * *

"It didn't work," Luce said morosely, looking down at her arms. The bubbles were starting to spread from her arms to her neck. The three of them sat around the kitchen table. Colonello scowled, jaw clenching as though he wanted to yell at someone, and Fon looked crestfallen. She instantly wanted to take back her words. _They're as afraid as I am, _she thought.

"I am so sorry, Luce-san," he murmured, staring at his hands. She could almost feel him beating himself up mentally, and shook her head.

"No, it's not your fault, Fon-kun. You did your very best," she stated firmly, smiling, "Thank you."

Fon nodded, but the worry didn't leave his face. "What's with that long face, Fon-kun?" she asked, an idea suddenly striking her. Leaning across the table, she lifted her hands and forced his lips up. "See, you look much better smiling. Don't you think so, Colonello-kun?"

Colonello looked up, then started laughing. Fon tugged her hands away, but he was smiling properly now, and Luce felt better. She didn't want them to ever feel guilty or responsible for anything that might happen that day. There wasn't anyone to blame, not even Ryohei.

_I wish this had just been a regular Saturday, the three of us just having fun together_, she thought, then brushed the thought aside.

"Alright then. Now, how much time do we have left?" she asked, standing up and pulling her jacket on. She schooled her features to appear normal and not betray the fear she felt.

"Four and a half hours," Colonello replied, wiping the dust of a clock on Fon's kitchen counter. She felt her heart clench. They had almost reached their halfway mark. Time was running out. Colonello stood up, looking determined. "Since all that magic healing didn't work - "

"For the last time, Colonello-san, it is _not _magic healing -"

"- It's my turn to try now, kora!"

Luce opened her mouth to respond when her stomach growled. She flushed, remembering that she hadn't really had a proper breakfast at all, and all her worrying was making her ravenous. Colonello sighed and Fon chuckled and for a moment, everything felt normal. "Fine, lunch first, then my turn, kora."

* * *

Colonello didn't consider himself to be a doctor. He wasn't like Fon, who knew all sorts of things about treating people. He wasn't like Luce, who knew how to fix people with just one smile. The only thing Colonello knew was that if something was hurting someone he cared about, then the right course of action was to get rid of that thing, whatever it was. Except, in this case, what was killing Luce wasn't something he could riddle full of holes and throw in a ditch somewhere. Which meant he was pretty much useless (unless it came to poisoning her, which he really hadn't meant to do), and he knew it, too.

But if anyone thought he was just going to sit on his hands and do nothing, they sure as hell didn't know the first thing about him.

Luce was his friend. Someone, he was steadily beginning to realize, as seconds ticked into minutes ticked into hours, he didn't want to lose. He enjoyed being around her, and even her annoying perpetually smiling friend. Abandoning your friends made you scum. His old man might have called him a disgrace of a soldier, but there were a few things that Colonello remembered well from military school.

"Colonello-san, where exactly are we headed?" Fon's voice cut through the air, startling him out of his thoughts. He glanced over his shoulder to see Luce trailing behind him, with Fon bringing up the rear.

"To meet my friend," he answered shortly as they walked past a series of identical drab apartment blocks. He had only been here a few times, but he knew the route well.

"And you believe he can cure Luce-san?" Fon asked.

"I think _she _might."

He didn't get any more questions after that. They walked in silence for a few more minutes – only three and a half hours left – before he stopped in front of a block on the corner of the street. Colonello gestured at them to follow as he headed up the stairs to an apartment on the third floor. Luce was panting a little, and he noticed for the first time a sheen of sweat on her forehead despite the cool weather. Fon pressed his hand to her forehead, giving Colonello a glance that spoke volumes. In his heart, the beginnings of fear made themselves known.

He hadn't fully believed Luce would die – it was too insane. _Not that baby hitmen, magic bullets and middle school mafia bosses are any less crazy_, he reminded himself. But if Luce died… He shook his head, thought _don't think it _and pressed the doorbell with more force than was really necessary.

"Coming, coming! Give me a minute!" A voice yelled from within the apartment. There was a very loud clattering and muffled cursing. Fon raised his eyebrows at Colonello while Luce tilted her head, looking somewhere between confused and worried.

At last, the door was yanked open, revealing a disgruntled looking young woman, dressed in loose tank top and shorts. Colonello willed all of his thoughts to remain on the straight and narrow. Her eyes flicked from Luce and Fon to Colonello's grim, set face, and her face betrayed surprise.

"Colonello? What's going on?" Lal asked.

* * *

"Let me try and get this straight," Lal said slowly, sitting on a chair in apartment, which sort of looked like a bomb had gone off within it. Colonello, Luce and Fon had managed to find available surface to perch on. He had always thought it was weird that for all her military rigidity and training, she was one of the messiest people alive in her own home. Lal was staring at the three of them suspiciously, who all bore overly innocent expressions. Colonello wondered if this was what it felt like to get interrogated by the police.

"Your friend here has taken some kind of weird medicine whose name you have _somehow_ forgotten that has given her a weird disease and you want me to cure her," she said, glancing at Luce, who looked plain uncomfortable under the older woman's penetrating gaze. Colonello nodded. "Why haven't you just taken her to a doctor?" Lal demanded, folding her arms across her ample – _not the time _– chest.

The three of them looked at each other. _Hey doc, my friend here has been taking these weird magic pills that sort of give her superpowers and it turns out also give her a deadly disease. Could you help us? _He thought. That had been the main reason for why they had decided not to go. There was no way they could tell Lal about everything – Luce had made it clear that she wanted as few people as possible involved.

"Well…" Fon began when Colonello cut him off.

"It was illegal medicine, kora," he blurted out, not missing the horrified looks his friends were giving him. _**That **__was the first thing I thought of? _He wondered, and resisted the urge to smack himself in Lal's place. Lal's eyebrows seemed eager to meet her hairline.

"Her?" she asked incredulously, pointing to Luce, who was at that moment wearing a long white dress that reached the middle of her calves. Luce reluctantly nodded and Lal leant back a little, thinking. "I'm not a doctor," she said pointedly to Luce, "I don't know what my idiot pupil told you; I just know military first aid. I know something about poisons, and that's only an interest. I'm not qualified to diagnose or cure you."

"I understand," Luce said, her voice steady, not the stuttering one she usually used around people she didn't know. She held her head straight, meeting Lal's statement with a firm smile. Colonels felt his respect for Luce grow.

Lal gave her a long, penetrating look. "Good," she stated at last. "Now let me see it."

Luce shed her jacket and Lal examined the marks, her brow furrowed. Colonello and Fon sat back, watching. He leant a little closer to the Chinese boy.

"I'm out of ideas after this. If Lal can't cure her, I don't care what Luce says, we're taking her to a doctor, kora," he hissed out. At first he thought that Fon hadn't heard him, but then the other boy nodded.

"Agreed."

Relieved, he settled back as Lal continued her examination. Fon was so loyal to Luce that for a while he'd been afraid he would disagree. He didn't want to have to drag Luce to a hospital _and _fight off a former assassin. At least they both agreed on what needed to be done to make sure Luce didn't die. He winced at the thought.

_Don't even consider it. Thinking it makes it happen. _

Lal leaned back, frowning. "This isn't anything I've ever seen before or heard of," she said and looked at Luce, "What _medicine _were you taking?"

Luce's eyes darted to them. "Um…it…makes me…stronger," she murmured vaguely.

Lal blinked. "You take _steroids_?" Colonello suddenly had a horrifying mental image of Luce covered in rippling muscles. _I think I need to throw acid on my brain. _

"Um, not…exactly?"

"And your report card for fifth grade is buried in your backyard," she muttered, to which Luce flushed. Lal shook her head and stood up, crossing the room. "You," she said, glaring daggers at Colonello, "We need to talk. Privately." Then she grabbed his collar and dragged him into the kitchen. They faced each other, Lal with her hands on her hips.

"What the hell is she taking, rookie?" she snapped, "I've never seen anything like that before. The weird marks, the skulls, the fever, none of that is _normal_."

Colonello found himself on shaky ground. He didn't want to break Luce's trust, but lying to Lal was difficult. She knew him too well. Read him too well. He respected her too much to want to lie to her. "Look, can you cure her, kora?" he responded, dodging the question.

"No," she said shortly, "Didn't you hear me telling you about how your _friend _has some kind of unidentifiable disease? I can't cure something I don't recognize."

Colonello deflated. _I failed, _he thought. Their last try hadn't been good enough. "It was a long shot anyway," he muttered, and headed back into the room. Fon and Luce met his disappointed face and understood, both standing up.

"Wait." They all turned to look at Lal, leaning against the kitchen counter. "There is someone I've heard about that _could _cure you. One of my instructors talked about him – this real pervert of a doctor."

All of their heads snapped up. "Um, did you say…a perverted doctor?" Luce asked, her voice shaking. Lal nodded, confused by their reactions. _Please be right, Lal, _Colonello thought. "What…was his name?"

Lal frowned. "I think it was…Doctor Shamal."

Luce leaped forward and hugged a very shocked and uncomfortable looking Lal. Colonello's mouth fell open. Then she let go, turned to look at him and Fon, and beamed. "Come on! We have to tell Ryohei!" she yelled as she ran out of the apartment, "Thank you, Lal-san!" Fon nodded his thanks and chased after her.

Colonello turned to look at Lal and grinned. "So can I hug you too?"

"_No_ – w-would you let go of me, you idiot!"

* * *

Ryohei's face lit up the instant she told him about Doctor Shamal. "That's him! The name I forgot _to the extreme_!"

Luce felt all the worry she'd been carrying for the past few hours dissolve as she nearly swung Ryohei about in glee. Behind her, she heard the unmistakable sound of Fon and Colonello letting out a long a sigh of relief. They knew who could cure her. _I'm not going to die_, she thought giddily, twirling Ryohei around, then stopped, because she was starting to feel a little bit woozy. _Less than three hours left_, she reminded herself. _And we still haven't actually gotten the cure_

"Where do we find him then, Ryohei-san?" Fon inquired.

Ryohei paused, scratching his forehead. "The Ninth mentioned something…lives in Japan…I remember! He lives somewhere near Third Street!" Luce felt her glee dampen slightly.

"But Ryohei, that's more than twenty blocks long! He could live anywhere there! We can't just ring every doorbell on the street!" Luce wailed, clutching her arms. Thing suddenly didn't seem quite so hopeful.

"Then we'd better get moving, kora," Colonello declared pointedly. Luce nodded, trying to regain her confidence. She grabbed Ryohei and Kangaryuu and the three of them raced out.

* * *

"So, this Doctor Shamal looks…octopus-like?" Fon asked carefully, as they approached Third Street. Ryohei nodded fervently. Luce tried to picture that in her head, then stumbled a little. "Are you alright, Luce-san?" Fon asked immediately.

"I'm…fine, Fon-kun," she said, rubbing her temples. "Just a bit…woozy."

Colonello eyed her. "Are you sure you don't want to sit down or something?"

She shook her head and tried to look better than she felt. "I'm alright, Colonello-kun. Don't worry."

To try and prove her point, she took a step forward and staggered slightly. Fon and Colonello immediately grabbed her arms and supported her up. Ryohei patted her leg from where he was sitting on Kangaryuu, as though to reassure her that he was there.

"Don't try and lie, kora," Colonello stated, even as Luce tried to insist that she was _fine, really _but then she decided it wasn't worth it. She felt terrible, and she was glad that they were here to help her. Glad that she wasn't facing this by herself.

_Maybe we can do this… Maybe it really will be alright. _

They paused at the start of Third Street. A long of row apartment blocks greeted them, followed by shops, and then more apartment blocks. Luce felt her morale sink into her shoes. _He could be __**anywhere**_, she thought.

"I don't think I can find anything good about this situation," she murmured, and wondered when she had become so pessimistic.

"Third Street has _extremely_ good supermarket deals!" Ryohei suggested helpfully. They stared at him, then at each other. Luce wondered where on Earth he had found out that kind of information, then resolved that she didn't really want to know. Colonello opened his mouth, but one look from Fon had him wisely shut it.

At that exact moment, they heard a large groan of pain. A man with dark brown hair and obviously foreign features was massaging his face, where a young woman had just whacked him with her handbag. He wore a white coat, dark pants and shoes. _Almost like a doctor_, she thought.

"I swear, if murder weren't illegal, I would kill you, you _pervert_!" she yelled, stalking away. The man grinned smugly.

"Ah, still a tomboy. Now I like you even more~!" he stated, turning on his heel as though to chase after her, arms extended. Fon tilted his head

"I think I understand what you mean, Ryohei-san," he said slowly. Luce blinked.

"Wait, you mean that man over there is…" she trailed off. How could somebody so lecherous-looking be a qualified doctor? Fon had to be joking. She tilted her head as well, then swiftly regretted it, because it was just making the dizziness worse.

"Yes! He's one of the best doctors in the world!" Ryohei explained, just as the woman punched Shamal in the face for trying to sneak up and kiss her. Luce suddenly felt a lot more at ease with the idea of dying. As he pulled himself up from where he was lying on the ground, the doctor glanced at them.

"Hey what's with those faces…Sasagawa Ryohei? You're here in Japan?" Shamal asked, scratching his head. Ryohei nodded. Shamal's eyes moved from Fon to Colonello to Luce, and she got the uncomfortable feeling that he was looking at her in a decidedly ungentlemanly way.

"Oi, quit looking at her that way," Colonello stated, glaring at Shamal. The doctor grinned charmingly (at least Luce guessed he thought it was charming, it just seemed sleazy to her).

"Now, now boys, I'm sure you've done the same," he said smoothly.

"I didn't!" both Fon and Colonello yelled, going pink in the face and deliberately not looking at her. _If I live, I have to remember never to take a Dying Will Pill in front of Doctor Shamal, _Luce thought.

"I need you to cure my student from Skullitis _to the extreme_!" Ryohei interrupted, dragging Shamal's attention away from her. He pointed at Luce. Shamal's eyes lit up. His charming (sleazy) grin widened.

"I'd be delighted - " He started forward towards Luce but Fon and Colonello blocked his assault and sent him careening onto the pavement. Both wore expressions that strongly suggested that any struggling would result in extreme pain. Luce could almost feel sorry for him. Almost. Shamal sat up, looking mildly irritated. "Hey, now what's with that kind of attitude? I was just trying to give my beautiful patient an inspection."

"I think, Doctor Shamal, that if you continue to speak you are going to soon regret doing so," Fon said politely, his smile taking on a sinister edge. Colonello cracked his knuckles meaningfully.

Shamal held up his hands placating. "I was only trying to ascertain what kind of disease she suffered from. Totally harmless."

"Ryohei-san just told you what disease Luce-san has."

"I felt an examination was in order."

"If you don't start curing her, I think a castration is in order, kora."

Luce slumped a little where they were supporting her, and Fon and Colonello instantly switched their attention to her. _So this is what it feels like to be on a merry-go-round for several hours_, she thought distantly.

"Is something wrong, Luce-san?" Fon asked, "You look very pale."

"The sky looks purple, Fon-kun," she said deliriously, looking at him with confusion, "Is it meant to be purple? I don't remember it being purple. Did it change colors when I wasn't looking?"

Shamal was suddenly serious. "How many hours has it been since the first signs appeared?" he snapped, looking at the others. _Hmm, I thought his hair was brown. Green looks good too_, Luce thought.

"Six, I think," Colonello stated, looking surprised at the sudden change in character.

Shamal cursed. "It's entering the final stages. Come with me. I don't have the cure with me now. We'll need to go to my apartment," he said, turning around and gesturing at them to follow him.

"Can we trust him, Ryohei-san?" Fon asked under his breath, looking down at the hitman.

"Of course you can trust me," Shamal said over his shoulder, startling the trio, "I'm a professional."

* * *

The apartment was fairly spacious and well-decorated as Shamal led them in. It also appeared to have rainbow wallpaper, but she was probably just hallucinating. Luce's legs chose to give out on her at that point, leaving her crouched on the living room floor. Fon sat down next to her, checking to make sure she was alright. Colonello blinked in surprise at his surroundings.

"Wait, this is Reborn's apartment…_You're _his guardian, the one that's never around and hits on every girl in sight, kora?!" he demanded, shocked. Luce suddenly felt a little worried about ever coming over to visit Reborn. Shamal raised an eyebrow.

"I get the feeling he hasn't been telling people wonderful things about me," he said dryly while Colonello just looked frustrated. He nodded at them to wait where they were, then headed into another room. Colonello plopped down beside them, muttering something that sounded like 'unbelievable' under his breath. Luce wasn't entirely sure. She was more concerned about the fact that the floor and ceiling appeared to have switched places.

Shamal emerged carrying a small case. "Hmm, the opposite of Skullitis is the Angel Disease," he said, flipping the case open to retrieve a small capsule.

"You are going to give Luce-san _another_ disease?" Fon stated, incredulous. Shamal shook his head, as though amused by their reactions.

"Don't get so worked up. I have 666 incurable diseases since I have a body that easily attracts diseases and viruses. Know why I'm not dead?" he explained, moving towards Luce, who scooted away a little. "It's because of the cancellation of opposing illnesses. For instance, if I have a feverish disease, I can give myself a disease that lowers body temperature, allowing me to maintain a normal temperature. That's what I'm going to do to my lovely patient."

He held up the capsule and leant forward, getting a lot closer to her than she would have liked. Luce leant backwards. "Now, if you would remove that jacket - " Fon aimed a kick at his head, which Shamal expertly dodged. Fon and Colonello positioned themselves in front of Luce, alongside Ryohei who was glaring at Shamal. "Oh, alright, alright, I'll stay on this side of the room."

He flipped the capsule into the air, where it split open, allowing a mosquito to escape. "Eh, what's that?" Luce asked vaguely, trying to point in the general direction of the insect, and missing.

"I didn't mention – Shamal is also an assassin called 'Trident Shamal'!" Ryohei piped up, "He controls Trident Mosquitoes that carry 666 incurable diseases to kill enemies _to the extreme_!"

"Does Reborn know that?" Colonello asked curiously. Shamal just grinned. Luce dizzily watched the Mosquito circle her head and then settle itself on her neck. She felt it start to suck her blood, then it flew off. Shamal nodded, indicating that it was done. She felt the wooziness start to fade a little.

"It will take awhile for the markings and the dizziness to wear off. Best you don't move around and just stay here until it goes away."

Colonello opened his mouth but Shamal cut him off. "And I guess your bodyguards can stay too."

"Like we'd leave Luce alone with you, kora," Colonello muttered under his breath. Luce squeezed their hands and smiled at them.

"I'm going to live," she choked out, feeling on the verge of tears.

"Of course you are," Fon responded, smiling, and Colonello grinned too, both looking so relieved, and her heart felt warm. "Didn't we say we wouldn't let you die?"

* * *

Reborn opened the door to the apartment to find three bodies slumped against the wall of the living room. His old man was leaning over one of them. Reborn turned on a lamp to see Fon, Colonello and Luce fast asleep, with the two boys resting against Luce. A baby and a kangaroo were curled up at Luce's feet, which didn't particularly interest him. They got a lot of weird guests visiting his guardian. What concerned him was that his old man was leaning very close to Luce with a look he really did not like.

Reborn aimed a kick at his old man's head, who blocked it without looking. "What do you think you're doing to Luce?" he said coldly, resisting the urge to do something violent. Shamal sighed.

"I'm just making sure my patient is all right. What did you think, that I was going to feel her up in her sleep? I'm hurt," he responded, backing away. Reborn watched him carefully, from under the brim of his fedora. "She's perfectly fine. You can keep an eye on her if you want. Be my guest." He turned and went into the kitchen to get a drink.

Rebron turned his eyes to Luce. A dozen questions ran through his head. Why was she here in his house, letting Shamal treat her? What illness did she have? Why were Colonello and the transfer student here with her? The last question irked him for some reason, though he couldn't quite fathom why. Sighing, sat down in front of her, rationalizing to himself that it wasn't creepy to sit around watching somebody sleep. _The old man must really be rubbing off on me_, he thought bitterly.

At that moment, Luce's eyes fluttered open. She blinked, then saw Reborn and yelped. "Ah, R-reborn, w-what are you doing here?" she asked, looking about while trying not to disturb the two boys sleeping by her sides.

"I live here," he said simply. She nodded slowly, as though recalling something. "You're being treated by Shamal?" he asked.

She nodded again, but did not elaborate, and Reborn decided to leave at that. People were entitled to their secrets. For a while, they sat in silence. The room was dark, with just the two of them, and it felt odd, just sitting there, watching each other, with Colonello and Fon and the mysterious baby slumbering away. Intimate, and yet not. The weight of what had happened with Mochida tugged at Reborn. He hadn't spoken with Luce since, and she had seemed to be avoiding him. Their initial label of merely 'classmates' no longer seemed able to apply. He had found he liked talking to her. "This is very strange, isn't it," he said at last, breaking the silence. _Not the right thing to say, _he thought.

She smiled a little, poking Fon in the cheek, who mumbled something in Chinese. "A bit." She looked at him. "Doctor Shamal is your…guardian?"

"Regrettably."

Luce giggled, and Reborn felt unexpectedly happy. He found he liked seeing her happy, and herself, as she had been that afternoon after the fight. He shook his head a little, wondering at his own thoughts.

"Then…he was not the one who named you Reborn?" she asked tentatively, looking at him curiously.

_Ah. So she's wondering if that's my real name._ He shook his head. "I gave myself that name."

She said nothing for a long time. "What was the real one? That is, if you want to tell me, I -"

"It's fine, Luce." There were very few people in the world who knew his real name. Shamal was one, Colonello another (they had grown up together) and of course, his parents. It represented another time for him. He found he wanted Luce to know, if only because he knew she would never tell anyone. Because he trusted her, after what had happened. He scooted closer, and she leaned forward gingerly. He whispered it in her ear, hearing the name he hadn't allowed himself to be called for so many years, since the day Shamal took him in and erased everything that had come before it. Since the day his father was killed by a rival assassin, and left him a single handgun and a lifetime of unanswered questions.

He wished he could tell her all that. Luce just seemed the type of person who would listen, and let him get it off his chest. Maybe it was the way she just seemed to know things, understand things, and accept things about people so easily. But he was the type who kept secrets, and that was as much as he was willing to give that evening.

"It's a good name," she said softly. "B-but I think Reborn suits you better."

He smirked. "That makes two of us."

She smiled and tapped her chin. "But 'Reborn' is a little ridiculous too, don't you think? Like the name of a superhero."

"Maybe I wanted to be a superhero."

"Yes, y-you would look very dashing in tights." They both seemed to realize the implications of that at the same time, and he smiled a little as Luce went red and covered her face with her hands. He hadn't thought she had that kind of nerve in her, to tease somebody. _She just keeps surprising me_, he thought, _And I keep wondering what else there is that I don't know yet about her, and want to find out. _"I mean, I mean - "

"Although," he stated, smirking even wider now, "I think you would be more appropriate as a superhero, after what you did to Mochida."

She blinked at him, then looked at her hands. "Not really. I'm just Luce," she murmured, sadly drawing a little into herself.

"What's wrong with Luce?" he responded, looking at her, suddenly frustrated. "I don't see anything wrong with Luce, and think many others would agree with that."

She stared at him, and then her face broke into a smile. "Thank you."

"I meant it." He didn't believe in telling others lies just to make them feel better about themselves.

She smiled at him, that smile that seemed to look right through him, and made him uncomfortable. It made him feel exposed. "I know. I think the same thing about Reborn."

"I'm flattered." He tried to brush it off, not show it affected him, her opinion of him, even as her blue eyes seemed to figure it out anyways. He lowered his head, allowing the fedora to shade his eyes, and opened his mouth to speak.

"Now, this is all very touching, but I don't think you're sick anymore, Luce Nero." There was very little stopping Reborn from strangling Shamal at this moment, and he was fairly certain that nobody would fault him for it - several would likely cheer him on. Luce stared at Shamal in shock, who had materialized from the kitchen holding a pot of coffee. "I pronounce a clean bill of health. You can go now," he clarified. "Unless you'd like to stay~."

Flustered, she stood up, rousing the baby and kangaroo at her feet. Luce managed to bring Fon and Colonello back into the world of the living, and the group prepared to leave. Just as Luce was about to close the front door, she paused and looked at Reborn, almost nervous.

"Um, me and Fon-kun and Colonello-kun…we eat lunch on the roof… You can join us, if you want…with Bianchi-san...I know Colonello-kun won't mind, and neither would Fon-kun," she mumbled. He smiled a little, unaccustomed to such an action.

"Sure, Luce."

She beamed at him, and then she was gone. Reborn stared a long moment at the place where she had been, feeling strangely happy. _Friends now, _he thought, and smiled again.

"Cute girl," Shamal said slyly, interrupting his thoughts. Reborn kicked him in the face.

* * *

Luce smiled to herself as she opened the front door of her house. She wasn't dead, and despite everything, her day had been good. She wanted to keep all that had happened, the feel of it still thick in her head, the images of Fon and Colonello's actions, the sound of Reborn's words awake in her ears, twitching pleasantly inside her. _You're being silly, Luce_, she chided herself, but couldn't help it. She felt something inside her twisting and floating, as though her heart was bigger than her chest.

_I like this world a lot_, she thought, meant it.

"I'm home!" she called out, humming as she pulled off her shoes. Ryohei grinned up at her, and she unexpectedly scooped him up and hugged him. "I'm glad I'm not dead," she whispered. He went red at her attention, but she could feel him squeeze her back a little too, and knew that he'd been just as worried. They entered the kitchen.

"Where have you two _been _all day?" her mother demanded, hands on her hips. Aria and Uni were staring at her, looking concerned.

"It's a long story," she said, and sat down, placing Ryohei on her seat. Aria gave her a searching look.

"Must be a good one, since you were humming 'You Are My Sunshine' so terribly," she said, and Luce laughed. Outside, lightning flashed, distracting everyone.

"It's getting close," Uni chirped, tapping her spoon against her lip. Aria shook her head, counting until they heard the thunder.

"Nope. It'll be a long while before it reaches us," she said, holding up six long fingers to indicate the distance. Uni shook her head determinedly, her face strangely serene.

"It'll be here soon," she said vaguely, and then went back to her meal. The conversation resumed again, but Luce felt included somehow, no longer a bystander, content to listen and say nothing. The place in her chest felt so warm, and Luce realized that she was happy, really and truly this time.

"Eh, Luce-nee, you have this weird look on your face!" Uni said, and the attention in the room was suddenly focused on her. "Are you okay?"

Luce smiled. "Yes. I'm fine."

* * *

**note5: **Sometimes I think I'm writing a serious story, other times I just look at what I write and think that I'm just writing a crack fic that's pretending to be serious.  
**note6: **According to Fuuta's ranking book, Third Street in Namimori has the best supermarket deals. Really. Also, do not try Colonello's remedy at home. It would be a very bad idea.  
**note7: **I hope everyone is satisfied by this chapter, and hopefully the next chapter will take a shorter time to write. Hopefully. Anyways, please review.


	5. Target 5: The Scientist

**disclaimer: **Katekyo Hitman Reborn! belongs to Akira Amano. I only own this story.

**note: **Man, I'm glad everyone is enjoying this story. At the moment, I'm submitting this chapter in a bit of rush, so I'll only be able to answer the questions in the following chapter. I really apologize for this.  
**note2: **I'm going to be away for awhile, so don't expect any updates until Christmas. Hopefully this will be enough to tide everyone over until then. Please enjoy.

* * *

**Target 5: The Scientist **or **Perfectly Legal Scientific Experimentation, and Other Perfectly Normal Activity**

* * *

On a perfectly normal Friday in May, a boy with messy dark green hair was walking through the streets of Namimori. Adjusting his glasses, he glanced at the street sign to ensure that he was on the right track. He'd been irritated to discover that the precise bolt he needed to complete his latest invention was sold at only one shop, and said shop was on the other side of the city. And the idiotic bus driver had told him to get off at the wrong stop, which meant he was now slogging through neighborhoods he had never seen before in order to locate the aforementioned shop. It was all very troublesome. But wasn't that how things always were?

Panting a little, he made his way up a short hill filled with annoyingly cheery pastel rows of houses. His side was aching when he reached the top and he had to stop for a full minute to catch his breath. _Maybe_, Verde thought, _Those P.E. teachers have a point when they say I need more exercise. _In order to distract himself from the physical exertion, he stewed over his recent blunder at school. He'd gotten a mere _ninety-nine _on his mathematics test that the rest of the class had failed. Him – once referred to as the Second Coming of Da Vinci in his first year of middle school. All because he'd forgotten to round up to the third decimal point on the fifth to last question.

It was mortifying.

At this precise moment – Verde would later record it down as the moment in his life when everything changed– he heard raised voices. This did not particularly concern him much, and he heard the voices distantly, barely paying attention to them.

"Ryohei, I really can't get the lid off this jar of pickles!"

"Try harder! The Vongola Decimo can't be defeated by vegetables!"

"I don't see how this tests me!"

"This is a test of strength! This is your first trial!"

"But I don't even want to be a mafia boss!"

"If you could defeat an assassin, you can defeat a pickle jar! If you believe you can, then you can!"

"That doesn't make sense!"

"It makes _extreme _sense!"

"Oh, Ryohei, I give up!"

"Let me show you how! Stand back _to the extreme!_"

The wall next to Verde exploded outwards, sending him crashing into the asphalt in a cloud of dust and plaster. Glasses horribly askew, he sat up and gaped at the sight before him. A toddler was standing in front of a pickle jar as big as he was, one fist raised in front of the destruction before him. The lid remained firmly on the jar. _Impossible…for a toddler to do so much damage, _he thought, disbelieving.

He removed his glasses, wiped them, then looked again. Now the toddler was holding up what looked like a bottle of pills. A girl with dark blue hair and an odd flower-shaped birthmark under her left eye had entered his field of vision, looking horrified.

"Ryohei, I really don't think this is a good idea," she was saying, waving her hands for emphasis.

"Maybe," the toddler agreed, "But _someone _has to open these pickles! Do it with your _extreme _Dying Will!"

The moment the girl swallowed a pill, the pressure around her burst outwards, along with her clothes. Forehead burning with orange fire, blue eyes glowing, she yelled, "OPEN THE PICKLE JAR WITH MY DYING WILL!" Verde's jaw slackened. She stalked forehead, grabbed the offending jar of vegetable produce with one hand and ripped the lid off in one clean move. Then she was back to the nervous looking girl he'd seen seconds earlier, happily holding up the jar. "I did it – what are we going to do?!"

He collected his jaw off the ground, his thought process jumped about rapidly. _A baby that can break through walls… That baby is obviously not a regular child… It reminds me of __**that **__incident… Perhaps there is something there worth investigating… And that girl that ripped the lid off the pickle jar, what was in those pills? This could be something groundbreaking. This could be my ticket to the Nobel Prize – I have been keeping a special spot for it all these years. I need to acquire my test subjects before they get away!_

He did not, surprisingly, think about the fact that Luce was now in her underwear as he stood up, brushed himself off and approached. He prided himself of being one of the few teenagers who had managed to ignore the effects of puberty on his mind. Dreams of what he might discover were all that he thought of (this was actually untrue, since Verde was after all, a nerdy teenage boy with little contact with females. But he only thought about it for a second. _Really_).

Verde cleared his throat. "Excuse me," he began. The girl glanced up, and immediately squeaked and wrapped her arms around herself. The toddler raised a fist, a kangaroo standing behind him. _A miniature kangaroo… It all continues to become more interesting… _

"My name is Verde Leonardo," he continued, brushing aside their reactions, "One of the greatest scientists in the world."

"Um, you look…sort of y-young for a s-scientist… Do you go to Namimori Middle?" the girl stuttered out, looking confused.

Verde's left eye twitched slightly. "For the record, I am a _high schooler_. As I was saying, to allow your pitifully small brains to understand – I wish to research you and the baby for the purpose of advancing scientific knowledge."

The girl blinked at him. _Surely it wasn't __**that **__hard to understand_, he thought. "Um, you want me and Ryohei to be your…research subjects?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, in the way people speak to small children and slow-witted beings, "That was what I just said."

"Ah, I see!" she responded pleasantly. "Is this for school?"

He paused. "Perhaps." The first lie for the week, and likely not the last. _What she doesn't know will probably not come back to haunt me, _he thought. The girl turned to look at the toddler. Verde waited impatiently. Kidnapping test subjects wasn't something he strongly disagreed with, but it would difficult. Mother might ask why there were two people bound and gagged in the broom closet, for starters.

"He's smart! He could be a good addition to the family!" the baby declared. Verde raised his eyebrows slightly. Was this some kind of childish game?

"Yes, but Ryohei…" Here she scooped him up and whispered to him. He caught several words – 'experimentation', 'illegal' and 'what if he's crazy?'. The last one amused him. He had often explained to the multitude of school counselors and therapists; he was dedicated, not crazy. The difference was that dedicated people got awards and crazy ones went to mental hospitals.

Verde had then smugly shown them a picture of his large and impressive award shelf.

At last she turned to him and smiled. "Um, Ryohei says it's alright as long as you don't do anything painful. You can come over tomorrow and do your, um…research? My name is Luce Nero. And this is Sasagawa Ryohei."

He nodded, smirking. Finding a new project always put him in a good mood. "Good. Be ready by eight." He turned to go just as a thought occurred to him. "Wait. Do you know the way to Shigoto's Hardware Shop?"

She cocked her head. "I think that's on Sixth Street. All the way down the hill near the park." With one long finger, she pointed in the direction he had come from. Verde internally cursed, his dark mood swiftly returning. Without thanking her, he spun around and left.

Behind him, he heard the girl – Luce – talking to the baby. "Ryohei, what are we going to do about this wall? There's no way we have insurance for _this_!"

* * *

"Can you believe we have insurance for minor earthquakes that cause only one specific part of our house to suddenly collapse?" Sepira chirped perkly as she served dinner. Luce coughed and gagged on her drink until Aria had to thump her on the back.

_I'm not sure what's worse, _she thought, _That Ryohei has contacts that can do things like this, or that kaa-san is just totally oblivious to how ridiculous that sounds. _

…_Probably both. _

"Um, k-kaa-san, is alright if I h-have a…friend over tomorrow?" she asked tentatively. She had to repeat her question again because her mother was too busy listening to Uni's story. Her mother's eyes lit up.

"That's a wonderful idea, Luce! What's your friend's name?" she asked, clasping her hands together in delight.

"V-verde. We're doing a, um, science project. T-together."

"So it's a boy," Aria stated, taking a large bite of meat and grinning. Luce flushed, then wondered why she was getting flustered. She knew Verde all of five minutes, and he seemed a little…overly self-confident.

"Aria, eat your meat in lady-like manner," Sepira said absently, eyes focused on Luce, "I give my full parental consent!"

Luce decided it really wasn't possible to explain everything to her mother, so she just nodded and continued eating, red-faced. Uni turned to look at her.

"Luce-nee, can I help out? I don't have anything to do tomorrow," she explained. Luce knew she ought to argue against it, but it was so difficult to reject Uni's ideas. She loved her little sister to bits, and Uni was a like a breath of fresh air in her life. _It might actually be good to have Uni around – she could keep everything sane and normal. _

"Of course Uni."

"Thank you, Luce-nee!" Uni beamed. Luce smiled back and continued eating, even as her gut warned her that perhaps it was not the best of ideas.

* * *

After eating dinner, Verde retired to his lab, which was really just his bedroom, but he much preferred the term 'lab'. It made things feel more official. It was fairly spacious area, cluttered with complete and half-built machines, chemistry sets, blue prints, notebooks and a stack of comic books that he hid under his bed and refused to admit belonged to him.

The incident this afternoon had intrigued him to the point where he had decided to put off his building of a duplication machine. He began packing his bag for all the important things that would be necessary for tomorrow's experimentation. He would have preferred she and the baby come to his lab, where he was unlikely to be disturbed – his parents were too busy working to lend attention to their only child.

Verde snapped the case shut with a little more force than was strictly necessary.

His eyes fell on a long metal barrel hidden behind a stack of boxes beside his cluttered bed. Walking over, he picked up the heavy object and considered it. It was one of the few things in the room that had not been made by him, only perfected, refined and adjusted. He had bought it only two months prior, and now combined with what had happened this afternoon brought several new questions into light…

* * *

Verde hadn't _really _thought that the inquiry he had made on several shifty looking message boards, magazines and back alleys about research on time travel would actually be answered. It'd been done on a whim. So when he received an answer from someone calling himself 'Lambo Bovino', he'd understandably believed that he was meeting a total lunatic with a large bread knife in an abandoned warehouse. Nobody could fault him for bringing one of his prototype weapons. Or twelve. (It was probably closer to twelve)

He hadn't expected a baby.

There was no one else in the dusty, dirty building, just an infant with long messy black hair, green eyes, with one perpetually closed and what looked like crosshatch tattoo underneath his left eye. He was dressed in a brown leather coat with a fur collar with a cow print shirt underneath, dark pants and boots, and a little necklace shaped like cow horns. Black fingerless gloves covered his small hands. All high quality. Curious.

For a moment, neither spoke. Verde could hear the faint noises of pigeons in the large metal building; he had spotted a few when he'd forced open the rusty metal door.

"My, my…You're younger than I expected," the baby stated at last, watching him nonchalantly. His speech had the faintest trace of an Italian accent. Verde's lip curled into a sarcastic little smile.

"Likewise." He pushed his glasses up. "Let's dispense with the pleasantries and introductions. I'm a busy man. You have the…device?" The baby nodded and motioned towards a crate resting a little ways in front of him. Verde slowly moved forwards, never taking his eyes off the baby. _Two years old at most… He was able to understand what I was saying, indicating a wide vocabulary… Fascinating, _he thought as he pried open the lid of the crate. Nestled inside was a bazooka, alongside several shells. "I inquired after a machine to travel through time, not a weapon," he stated, voice edged with disappointment.

The baby nodded. "It's called the Ten Year Bazooka. A person shot with it swaps places with their self from ten years in the future for five minutes."

Verde's heart beat faster at that – not quite a time machine, but with the right modifications… He refused to allow himself to get excited. The last few respondents had seemed as truthful, and the machines had all proved to be duds. Or they had attempted to stab him with large bread knives. Sometimes both.

Gingerly, he examined the machine, and was forced to admit to himself that for the most part, it seemed genuine. No obvious indication that it was a fake. He smirked. "Interesting little story, and convenient that there isn't anyone left to test it out on."

The baby made a strange little nose at the back of his throat. From the shadows, a very large shape appeared. Verde took a step back, eyes betraying fear. It was a bull. Large, fully grown, black as night with fierce horns, it kicked the ground, snorted and moved to stand beside its master. "You can try it out on Gyuudon. He's used to it," the baby said, patting the bull with one small hand and whispering encouragingly in its ear.

_What is this child? _

He carefully leveled the bazooka, stumbling a bit with its weight. The baby repressed a smile. Frowning, he took aim and fired, jerking at the recoil. There was a huge puff of smoke, and as it cleared the same bull stood before them. Verde opened his mouth to scorn the man when he realized something. It was not quite the same animal. There was an age to it now, a weariness. One of the ears was torn, the horns chipped and old. Its fierce eyes were dulled with milky cataracts. "Impossible," he whispered.

The baby shrugged, stroking the aged animal with tenderness. It leaned into his hand and made a quiet sound of contentment. "The Bovino Famiglia has some of the brightest minds of this time. Me, I don't get it at all, but it works," he said simply, with a slight smile.

"It would be more spectacular if a bowl of beef had appeared," Verde said dryly, trying to appear only marginally impressed. As his father said, never allow your clients to believe you want their products fiercely. One of the baby's eyes twitched, and he muttered something that sounded like '_to…le…rate_'. Something else occurred to him. "You're mafia," he said plainly, surprised.

The baby gave a thin smile. "Yes. You can stop reaching for that little device of yours; I'm not planning on sending you to the bottom of a lake with cinderblocks tied to your feet."

Verde's hand stopped where it was inching its way into his white lab coat. Suddenly the baby did not seem so harmless. A ripple of fear curled in his belly. Those were the eyes of a killer.

_A baby in the mafia… Clearly well trained… _"How comforting," he said, feigning ease, "Now…I presume this all has a price?"

"1000 Euros."

Verde nearly choked on his own spit. "You must be joking. For this toy? 300 Euros, at most." That was as much as he had removed from his parents' bank account without their knowledge. He took it as birthday money that they'd forgotten to give.

"1000 Euros, and that's that."

"300 Euros or I walk away."

"1000 Euros, or no deal!" the baby insisted, sounding a little desperate. Verde raised one eyebrow. The baby was sweating.

"And why exactly do you need that much money?" Tears welled in the baby's eyes.

"I lost a bet to Stupidera and now I have to pay him back! He cheated! He always does! And he calls me Stupid Cow!" he burst out, a little dribble of snot coming from his nose as he cried. Verde had a strong urge to hit his head against a wall at such childish behavior. So much for a dangerous baby. Probably just a child playing at being a hitman. The baby was now mumbling to himself about all sorts of alleged slights by this 'Stupidera'.

_I hope that's not actually his real name… Although you'd be surprised at what names Mothers give their children_, he thought wryly. He'd often wondered how much pain medication his mother had been given to name her first born child 'green'.

Of the matter at hand… He dangled 300 Euros in the front of the baby, shaking it emphatically. Reluctantly, the baby accepted it and dried his eyes, looking morose. Verde grunted. Negotiations concluded, he stored everything back into the crate.

"How could a child get his hands on this," he murmured to himself, wondering how he was going to get it home.

"I'm not a - " the baby stopped abruptly.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing! Didn't say anything! At all!" he cast about guiltily, clearing his throat. "I have another crate of shells in another location; I'll have them sent to your home soon."

Verde chuckled mirthlessly. "Enough with the little mafia game, I doubt you even know where your own home…" he trailed off, realizing how quiet it suddenly seemed. He looked up, glancing about the shadows of the warehouse.

But the baby and the bull were gone.

* * *

Verde ran his fingers over the sleek metal surface. He'd convinced himself that he'd simply been having too many sleepless nights, too much coffee, too much work. It had all been a hallucination of an exhausted mind. But seeing a second boy in possession of intelligence that was not that of an average two-year-old, and the strength of several grown men, had made him doubt that.

_He said he wasn't a child. Then what was he? Could these two babies be connected? And how does the girl figure in? _

Verde was nothing if not curious. He wouldn't have been able to achieve so much otherwise. That, and being given free reign as a child and plenty of books. He had to know and experiment and discover. Unconciously, he opened up the case and placed the bazooka inside. He'd find out. Tomorrow.

* * *

Luce bit one of her nails, as she sat on the sofa, waiting. Uni sat beside her, daydreaming. Ryohei looked impatient. He was late. She was beginning to have misgivings about this. Ryohei had insisted that it was good to try and recruit new members into the family, and the boy would probably agree. Luce argued that they didn't even know him, and he would only agree out of a desire to experiment on them. Ryohei had done what a lot of kids did in that situation – if you didn't have reason, go for volume. And conviction.

She really hoped he wasn't crazy. There was already so much insanity in her life. Her eyes flickered towards the workers fixing the outside wall.

Still, she'd gotten the feeling that he wasn't all bad, and that comforted her. There was a loneliness she'd felt too, but perhaps she was just imagining it. It scared her sometimes, the way she thought she could sense what others were feeling.

"I'm sure he'll be here soon," she said to the room's occupants, but also to herself. Uni glanced up thoughtfully.

"I think he forgot something, and had to go back," she said brightly.

Luce cocked her head. "What makes you say that?" she asked.

Uni smiled. "I had a dream last night. Like looking through a keyhole at something."

A chill raced up Luce's arm. Uni had always been an imaginative person. But there was something about the way she said it that put Luce on edge. As though she really believed it. "Eh, Uni, don't try and scare me like that," she said, forcing herself to smile, "You know I don't like that kind of story."

Uni pouted. "You're too easy to scare, Luce-nee." She perked up. "I'll tell Aria-nee you got scared!" She leapt up as though to run away. Instantly, Luce grabbed her little sister and dragged her onto the sofa, and started ticking her.

"I won't let you!" Uni squirmed, laughing and trying to bat Luce's hands away.

"Stop! Stop! I surrender!" she squealed and Luce paused, grinning. Ryohei was laughing too. The doorbell rang, and she sprang up to open it. Verde stood there, panting heavily and sweating, carrying a huge black backpack and another case in his hands. He wore the exact same white lab coat, dark green shirt, glasses, brown pants and black sneakers. His hair stuck up even more than usual. With his wiry, gangly frame that suggested that he hadn't quite grown into his body yet, faint stubble on his chin and disheveled appearance, he sort of looked like he'd been up all night and then threw himself down a flight of stairs.

She quickly ushered him and let him catch his breath. "I forgot…my lab notebook… had to run back… and get it," he gasped, setting down his bag with a loud thud. Luce's eyes turned to Uni, standing beside her, smiling.

* * *

Verde was glad that the girl had the hospitality to give him a drink and some cookies. He didn't thank her, of course, but he was secretly grateful. The walk to her house had been exhausting. Once he was able to breathe normally and his side stopped aching, he sat the girl – Luce, a quiet voice reminded him – and the baby down. The girl's younger sister hovered in the background.

"That's my sister, Uni. I have another sister, Aria. Everyone says we all look alike, I have no idea why!" she explained, pointing to a photograph of three blue-eyed, blue-haired clones.

"One wonders," Verde said sarcastically, which flew right over her head. She beamed. He coughed, and returned his gaze to his notebook. _Subject #1 seems incapable of displaying emotions beyond anxiety or intense happiness. Perhaps some form of latent childhood trauma. Must investigate further_, he scrawled. The girl irked him. He didn't like overtly happy people that insisted on heaping their happiness on other people. Especially those that couldn't take a hint that it was unwanted.

If he'd been a good, official scientist, he would have gotten them to sign a form and all that nonsense. But the fact was that Verde was neither good nor official, and he had better things to do. He already had to do all the drivel the education system called 'homework', which was child's play to someone who had three degrees.

"I'll need a sample of… the Dying Will Pill?" he said slowly, drawing out the word in all its ridiculousness. The girl looked at the baby – _Subject #1 defers to Subject #2 for decisions despite being at least ten years his senior _– who nodded. She handed over several small white pills, which Verde sealed into a small container. "And what exactly do these pills do?"

"Um, it…removes the limiters on your body, so your potential increases drastically," she explained.

"Anyone who swallows it is reborn to fulfill their last regret before they died _to the extreme_!" the baby chimed in. _Subject #2 possesses annoying verbal tic. I suddenly find myself preferring the cow brat. _Verde thought about this. An interesting concept, but at the same time, nonsensical.

"And if I didn't have a last regret?"

"You die," the baby said seriously. Verde wrote that down and underlined it twice.

"And the…flames?"

The baby squirmed, suddenly uncomfortable. "Um…Well…It's energy…different forms…NO IT ISN'T I DIDN'T SAY THAT… It's magic!" he sputtered. The girl just looked confused. _Subject #2 does not tell Subject #1 everything and is clearly leaving out evidence. Investigate further. _

"And what are you, some sort of magical elf?" Verde deadpanned. The baby looked insulted.

"I'm Sasagawa Ryohei, the World's Greatest Boxing-Hitman! I'm training Luce to become a mafia boss!" he declared passionately. _Subject #2 is under the impression that he is a mafia member. _

Verde glanced at her, who gave a sort of nodded and murmured something about 'Italian ancestry' and 'overly active imagination'. Her general manner suggested the baby was telling the truth. _Subject #1 is apparently delusional as well. Perhaps they have escaped from some sort of mental hospital, or circus._ Getting tired, Verde took blood and tissue samples from both his test subjects, as well as the kangaroo – _Subject #2 possesses limited creativity in naming and while more intelligent that a two-year-old, could likely be out-thought by a five-year-old. _

He conducted a variety of tests for strength and intelligence, and was grudgingly awed that the baby was capable of breaking a wooden board in his bare hands. "What else can you break?" he asked, and the baby just grinned and declared it was an '_extreme_' secret. Most of the tests were illegal. Very illegal. He smoothly informed them that it was standard testing, and besides, neither had been hurt, no skin off his nose. The second lie for the list. At last, finished, he began storing his equipment.

"What's that, Verde-kun?" the girl asked, pointing to the bazooka. He was annoyed that she addressed him as such – he was not her friend, or acquaintance. He did not have or need such things. His work was all that mattered.

"Don't call me that," he snapped irritably, but took it out anyways. _I'm growing soft_, he thought. "It's called the Ten Year Bazooka. I…upgraded it."

The girl clapped her hands in delight. "What does it do?"

Verde stepped forward to explain, his foot making contact with his bag. He stumbled and tripped, landing in sprawling mess of limbs on the floor, the bazooka hitting the ground and going off and hitting… The little sister. She disappeared in a puff of smoke, her face astonished.

Instantly, the girl had grabbed his collar and hoisted him up. Her blue eyes were sharp as flints and her smile was no longer sweet and welcoming. The baby cracked his knuckles menacingly. "What did you do to my sister?" she asked.

He blinked. "She's fine. She's switched places with herself from ten years into the future. Now please let go of me," he added, irked that he was being threatened by a girl a year younger than him and whole lot shorter. Slowly, she released him and glanced at the spot where her sister had been. The smoke was beginning to clear, revealing a silhouette.

"She's only twelve, Verde-kun."

"I fail to see how that matters," he responded honestly. She sent him a shocked, horrified glance, which made something in him twinge slightly. He brushed it aside. Everyone was fair game to him, only potential test subjects. Not people.

"How could you say something like that?" she demanded, looking up at him with a surprising amount of anger. At that moment, someone stepped out of the smoke, and the girl's eyes widened. A young woman stood there, almost the same height as the girl, wearing a simple yellow sundress and dark jacket over it. Something glinted under the jacket.

"Uni?" the girl asked hesitantly. The young woman was staring at her complete shock.

"Luce-nee? But you're so _young_!" she exclaimed, glancing about. "How could I be here? We don't own this any – ah, I'm in the past, aren't I?"

The girl – Luce, he was reminded again – nodded, her face pale and shocked. "The future…she went there…will Uni, will…my Uni be alright?" she asked.

The woman's face smoothened into one of understanding and calm. "Don't worry. Uni – I mean, the past me - should be fine. As long as she stays where she is and doesn't wander." Luce looked relieved. Tentatively, she reached out and touched the future version of her sister.

"You got really tall," she said in a strange voice. Verde wondered if she might cry. _All very touching and disgusting and full of __**feelings**_, he thought scornfully. It was beginning to remind him of the time the school had tried to send him to a therapist.

The woman laughed. "Don't worry, you get taller too. So does Aria-nee."

"What is… the future like?" She clasped her sister's hands. "You aren't married, are you?"

The woman laughed again. Verde wondered if he could exit the room, this was all getting to be too touchy-feely for him. "No, no, I'm not married, or engaged, or dating anyone. I'm a bit… busy for that. The future…well, I can't really tell you, Luce-nee. I might cause problems."

The girl glanced at him for confirmation. "If you were aware of the future, you might change something and create a new timeline," Verde explained, indulging himself as the smartest person in the room. "Which might say, cause your sister to stop existing in the future. In which case she would disappear before our eyes."

The woman nodded and smiled. "It's nice to see you too, Verde-kun, looking younger."

That made him curious. She knew him in the future? Or at least, in the timeline that she came from. He had learnt quickly that the future was always changing. Still, it raised new questions. He had, after all, planned to do his research, submit his paper and bid farewell to the girl – Luce – as unlikely acquaintances, never to meet again.

_Well, her timeline will probably shortly be destroyed, since I have no desire to remain in contact with these… test subjects. _

"Ryohei-nii!" The young woman had spotted him and swooped up and hugged the startled baby. She looked on the verge of tears.

"Uni, what's wrong? Why are you crying _extreme_ tears?" the baby asked, looking concerned. He looked ready to hurt someone. She sniffled and shook her head.

"Ah, I'm sorry, it's just…I haven't seen you in a while! In the future, well, we don't get to see each other as often as now, and it's been a long time," she said quietly, placating.

"That's _extremely _stupid! I'll change the future to make sure we get to meet all the time!" the baby vowed and the girl gave him a watery smile. Verde found it all very melodramatic, like those poorly written dramas Mother watched, where someone or another turned to be someone else's sister and was cheating with a third person and so on. He glanced at his watch.

"If everyone would please stop weeping salty tears over each other, I would like to inform you that we have less than one minute left before you return to your time. Thankfully," he stated.

"Always so sour, Verde-kun," the woman responded lightly, but she carefully set down the baby and turned to her sister, wiping her eyes. "It was good seeing you, Luce-nee and you, Ryohei-nii. I wish Aria-nee and kaa-san were here. We're all so…busy in the future, and it's difficult to meet."

The girl nodded. "Take care, alright? Don't date any shifty men! And tell Aria to eat more vegetables! Don't do anything foolish!"

"I promise," the woman said, and then she was gone in a puff of smoke, revealing a much younger girl. She instantly hugged her, checking all over for any sign of injury. "Luce-nee, I'm fine, really! I think I went to the future!"

"What clued you in?" Verde asked dryly. Both ignored him. He didn't like being ignored. In Verde's mind, the world ought to pay attention to him.

"And I was in this big mansion and I opened the door and started looking around and it was huge and…" she broke off and took a huge breath. "And when I opened one door, there was a man there with blond hair who looked sort of familiar and some other people and they were talking to his man with white hair. I wanted to go inside but I came back here before I could. Do you think that's important?"

"Yes, because that man is your future boyfriend and all those people are your willing slaves and that mansion is where you rule the world. _Can I go now?_" he asked, hefting his bag meaningfully. The girl smiled slightly, shaking her head at her sister, and walked him to the door.

"If you find anything, um, interesting, could you tell me about it?" she asked as she held the door open. He nodded once. _No harm_, he justified. "I don't think you meant what you said earlier," she added, looking at him.

"No, I meant all that. I wouldn't have said it otherwise," he replied coldly, because that was the only truth, even as she continued to look at him in a way that was unsettling. He turned on his heel and left.

* * *

Deep into the night, Verde looked at his notes once again, rubbing his tired eyes. For the most part, the information on his first test subject was fairly boring. She was an average teenage girl in every way. Nothing worthwhile to note. The Pill, therefore, was crucial in explaining her behavior and transformation. The second subject on the other hand… He didn't have a fantastic intelligence, but his strength was beyond anything for someone of that age. It was the strength of trained martial artist.

And there was something _off_ about his overall makeup. Verde couldn't put his finger on it, but he was very certain that his second test subject was not a real infant. Oh, he looked like a infant, but there was something wrong about it. He massaged his eyes.

Maybe he was overthinking things.

What was even more curious was the Pill. It defied most of his testing. It was made of substances he didn't recognize and that his equipment could not identify. _I have found something that for all intents and purposes, does not exist_, he thought with glee. It was a frustrating dream. He needed to unlock its secrets, but it stubbornly refused. He'd been working on it for hours, with nothing to really show for it. It wouldn't dissolve or break.

Determined to see if it couldn't be ground into dust, he raised a hammer and tried to reason with the thing. "I am trying to do research here, and you are not helping. In fact, you are making it worse, and to be honest, I don't see what all the fuss about you is for."

To demonstrate, he hit the pill with all the force in his spindly limbs. The hammer shattered into pieces and he was thrown backwards onto the floor. He stared in shock at the little pill. "Write that down," he ordered, then remembered that he didn't have a lab assistant.

As he scrawled his findings into his notebook, he thought, _Note to self: Get lab assistant. Preferably one that will frequently expound upon my genius and good looks, oohs and aahs at the right moments and has no moral qualms. Better yet if the assistant is called Igor. _

_It is strangely too quiet in the lab. Perhaps I ought to put some music on. Yes. That will do nicely._

* * *

Luce wandered into the living room the next morning, thinking. Uni hadn't shown any signs of worry about going to the future. If anything, she seemed to believe it had been just a rather vivid daydream, a truth Luce fully endorsed. She had calmed down after seeing that her sister was alright, but she still couldn't believe that a person would act that way. She'd believed he was her friend. Luce wasn't the type to give in so easily. Verde seemed to actively dislike people, which made her desire to make him have friends even greater.

_Before this I would have quivered and not confronted him… But seeing what he did to Uni, I couldn't stop myself. If anyone had hurt her, or someone I cared about… I'm changing. Maybe Ryohei is really able to change me, _she thought.

Earlier, the hitman had insisted that Verde would be back. "I know people like that," he'd said, "The more they try and stay away, the more you end up bumping into them! That's how the universe works _to the extreme_!"

Ryohei had then suggested she challenge him to a fight to prove his worth as a member of the family. Luce privately thought that even Uni could have beaten Verde in an arm wrestling contest, but that was a mean thought, and she did her best to banish it. Maybe she was still sore over what had happened.

Her foot hit something metal as she passed the sofa. Curious, she bent down and looked. A bazooka lay underneath. Her eyes widened. She hadn't actually seen Verde place the bazooka in his bag… She stared at the machine. But where did he live?

The doorbell rang, and she opened it to see Fon standing there, wearing the uniform of the ramen shop he worked for. "Oh, Fon-kun, what are you doing here?"

"I happened to be passing by, and thought I might come say hello," he said pleasantly, nodding to Ryohei, who stood at her feet. Luce instantly felt better being in his company. He noticed what she was holding. "What is that, Luce-san?"

Her mind drew a blank. "Um, well, it's a bazooka," she said lamely. Fon stared at her. "It's not mine! My…um, well, this guy, he left it here. He was at my house yesterday." Fon's eyes narrowed, and he bent to look at it more closely.

"Exactly who was this man?" he asked, poking the bazooka. It fired. Luce gasped, flapping her hand to get rid of the smoke, searching wildly for Fon. Then she heard her noise, and her eyes fell to the ground. Standing there was a tiny baby with shaggy black hair and a braid.

"W-what?" she said dumbly. The baby was staring at Ryohei.

"How strange, Ryohei-san. I feel suddenly on your level," Fon stated, looking confused. Ryohei grinned. Fon looked up. "You've gone through a growth spurt, Luce-san."

"Um, Fon-kun…"

"There's another kid you babysit, kora?" Luce winced as Colonello appeared in her front yard. His eyes widened as the realization hit him.

"What is he talking about, Luce-san?" Fon asked, bewildered.

"Holy shit, you shrunk!" Colonello declared, picking up the miniature assassin. It was then that the realization dawned on him.

"Put me down!" he demanded, no longer smiling, arms pin wheeling. Colonello's smirk widened.

"Nah, I kinda like that breeze you're generating, kora," he responded, dangling Fon by one hand. Fon's eyes turned icy.

"Colonello-san, if you do not put me down, at this exact instant, I will remind you why I was a feared assassin."

"Sure. Do you need me to change your diaper before that?" Fon said something very, very rude in Chinese that nobody at that moment understood, although the effect was there. "My mom always said, never make a nice guy angry. This is gonna be fun, kora," Colonello said, grinning.

Luce groaned. "Colonello-kun, put him down."

"Maybe he could be my subordinate. He'll need to change the hairstyle, though."

"What is wrong with my hairstyle?"

"Well, you see…"

"_Colonello-kun._"

The blond boy reluctantly placed Fon back on the floor. Fon glared up at him. Colonello just smirked. "You could be my subordinate," Ryohei suggested. Fon very politely reiterated that he was nobody subordinate except Luce's, and he would very much prefer not to wear boxing attire, and if anyone picked me up again they were dead. Colonello seemed eager to take him up on the offer.

"You used the bazooka." All four heads turned to see Verde standing in front yard, very out of breath. He was clutching his sides, large circles under his red eyes. Colonello pointed.

"Who's he?"

"Nobody you need to know," Verde snapped, snatching the weapon from Luce's hands. She pulled it back.

"Wait, you have to fix Fon-kun!" she insisted. Verde spared a single glance in the Chinese boy's direction.

"The bazooka frequently malfunctions. I haven't fixed all the glitches. It will wear off."

"When?" Fon asked.

"Eventually," he responded vaguely, looking eager to leave. Luce looked at him very firmly, and placed the bazooka behind her back.

"Fix him, Verde-kun. Or you don't get the bazooka back," she said simply, surprising herself. It was the same way she had felt after Uni had been hit by the bazooka. She did not like it when the people she cared about were hurt. Did not like it one bit.

He massaged his temples and groaned. "Oh, alright. I need the bazooka to fix him." She handed it over and sat down on the doorstep, removing several items from his coat pockets.

"Why do you have a blowtorch?" Colonello asked.

"Gardening," Verde deadpanned, opening a side panel on the bazooka and adjusting several wires.

"Very funny."

"Surely much funnier than any other joke you could possibly conceive." Luce had to restrain Colonello from trying to strangle the scientist. _He really has a knack for getting under people's skin_, she thought. At last, Verde finished his job and fired it at a Fon. An old man stood before them, hunched over and balding, with a walking stick. His face was wrinkled, and he had a very large white beard. Fon blinked. Verde frowned and looked at the bazooka.

"It suits you," Colonello said, choking with laughter. Luce bit her lip to keep from giggling.

"Luce-san, are you laughing?" he asked, eyes narrowing.

"Um, Fon-kun, that's a potted plant you're talking to. I'm over here." Fon slowly turned, groaning a little at the movement.

"Feeling unsteady, old-timer?"

"Colonello-san, please shut up."

"I'm just saying, that's a really nice beard you have there, kora."

"Oh, how careless, I crossed the wires by accident. It should work now," Verde said decidedly, and fired it again. A regular looking Fon stared back at them, checking himself all over. He breathed a sigh of relief. "Good. Now, I'll be on my way."

"Thank you so much, Verde-kun!" Luce said, smiling at him. He looked at her strangely with his dark green eyes.

"I wanted my bazooka back," he said blandly, "It is very frustrating that you insist on believing everyone in the world is capable of goodness."

"I just thanked you," she said, "Nothing about goodness." He scowled at her, and she kept on smiling. Maybe she didn't understand him, but she sensed things. _Maybe I'll get it one day, and maybe Verde-kun will too_, she thought.

"The noodles have gone all soggy," Fon said despondently, looking at the package in his hand.

"Let's eat them," Colonello suggested.

"Why don't we have a picnic? It's such a beautiful day. Verde-kun, why don't you come too!" Luce suggested. He gave her a pained look.

"There is nothing you can say that would make me do something so repulsive. I refuse to fraternize with middle schoolers."

* * *

"Stop smiling at me like that," he stated, sitting on the very edge of the checkered picnic blanket. He wasn't entirely certain why he was even here at this moment. Lu- the girl had arranged for them to have lunch at the park, with her bothersome friends and the baby tagging along. It was all terribly boring. The blond one seemed especially stupid. The black haired one was rather quiet, which made him marginally bearable.

"Please be more polite, Verde-san," the black haired boy stated. Scratch bearable. They were all insufferable, acting as though they were all the best of friends, singing songs and living under rainbows and glitter. It was too saccharine for his tastes.

"Man, you look like you haven't outside since the Middle Ages," the blond one commented. Verde grunted.

"If you are the product of excessive sunlight, I'll take my chances," he muttered.

"Oi!"

"How witty of you."

"Your shirt has your breakfast all over it, kora." Verde scowled at his precious green shirt, damning it for failing him at this precise moment. All because he'd eaten too fast this morning.

"I planned that."

"Uh-huh."

Luc – the girl smiled like a benign mother overseeing her wayward children. He frowned. He didn't like that metaphor. It implied familiarity with this girl. He didn't like familiarity with any of these people. And he was _joking_ around with them. He hoped a bolt of lightning might kill him at that moment and stop his brain from rotting. He needed to get as far away from them as possible.

"Agh, I can't get this pickle jar to open," she said, trying to unscrew the lid. The others offered brute force, none of which worked. Verde pushed up his glasses, sighed and held out his hand. He removed from his pocket a small device. Placing it on the lid, he activated it. Its legs spread out, carefully working through the seal. The lid popped off in his hands and he handed the jar to the stunned girl.

"That's amazing, Verde-kun," she gasped.

He smirked. "Of course it is." He glanced at the startled boys staring at him. "And that is why my kind will eventually conquer the Earth. Good luck."

* * *

_Journal entry #976 – Why did I make that device? I don't know. It was a strange, random thought that occurred to me late last night. She was pleased with it. I should feel smug. Strangely, I just enjoyed the fact that she and the baby were so happy. Her anger at what I had done is unsettling - she appears capable of making me feel guilty. Perhaps she has some special ability. I have more experimentation to do, and this is distracting me from my goals. My results are all that matter. _

_I must need more sleep._

* * *

In a small house in Namimori, a boy opened the front door to find a package on the doorstep. It is not for him. The childish script had led the postman into delivering it to the wrong house. Confused, the boy opened the package. Inside, they were only several shells, those for a large weapon. What were they? He reached to touch one. His mother was calling him from inside the house. He decided to bring the package inside and look at it later.

It seemed harmless enough.

* * *

**note3: **Verde actually got two responses before Lambo's. The first was by an old man with wild white hair who owned a nice little DeLorean. Verde had politely said no.  
**note4: **The second was by a very strange man who apparently owned a police box. The man also asked if Verde wanted a screwdiver. Verde tartly informed him that he had no interest in cabinet making and hung up.  
**note5: **Alright, that's all for now folks. I'm sure this chapter has actually answered several questions - and raised more. Please review.


	6. Target 6: Poison Cooking

**disclaimer: **Insert funny way of saying that Katekyo Hitman Reborn! does not belong to me.

**note: **So it is not Christmas. But at least it hasn't been a month. (Let's hope it won't get to that point). Anyways, thank you all you lovely readers for waiting and reading and wanting to dissect me (not the last one).  
**note2: **No, I am not jumping straight to the Future Arc - then I'd be missing out on all the craziness will come when the Kokuyo and Varia Arc roll around. I mean, how could I miss the chance to have big, burly Levi fight skinny, nerdy Verde? Also, everyone: Viper is going to be a girl in this fanfic. Just so we're clear.  
**note3: **I'm glad people got the references - I was bit worried since I don't know Doctor Who very well. I've only seen a couple of episodes out of curiosity. And had to listen as friends ranted on about 'Rose' and 'Donna' and 'River' and cried a lot. I'm not really sure why. But I would laugh myself silly if ever Verde met the Doctor (any of them).  
**note4: **Also, dishonour on everyone that didn't get the Back to the Future reference! I feel so sad.  
**note5: Rozetta kreuz lilith**, yes, Skull is the youngest. **MillionDollarNinja, **the other boy is Irie Shoichi. The set up for the Future Arc begins! **The Paradoxical Otaku**, I think I would have remembered drugging someone. Unless I have a selective memory. As for all the other questions - sorry, they're a little bit too spoilery to be answered. Please be patient. And now, the story.

* * *

**Target 6: Poison Cooking **or **Oozing Cakes, Selective Memory and Kangaroos With Sub-Space Pockets**

* * *

Never mind that they had never actually dated before. It _would_ happen (Bianchi had already picked out her wedding dress – she'd always wanted to be a June bride) and she wasn't planning on allowing anyone to stop it.

Bianchi had once watched a movie where the villain had said 'Never rub another man's rhubarb' right after shooting the hero. She fully agreed with him, except for his methods. There was just something about poisonous purple pies that dripped acid and vented toxic fumes that _really _brought the message across.

This brought her to Luce Nero. Bianchi had suspected for a time that the girl had a crush on Reborn – understandable, who didn't? - what with all her blushing whenever she spoke with him. She hadn't acted on it for the sole reason that she knew Nero would never work up the courage to confess to Reborn, so what did she have to worry about? She doubted Reborn would see anything in that shy, stuttering wallflower. Bianchi certainly didn't.

After all, Reborn was mafia. Or at least, his father had been mafia, which meant that he would probably become one someday. A man like Reborn wanted danger and thrill in his life, which Nero could never do. A peaceful life didn't suit him.

Until that day in April. Nero had made her move, and now Reborn was making them eat lunch with her and her gang every single day. She clenched her teeth every time Reborn spoke to that girl, smirked at her and chuckled. Bianchi had made it clear to the girl that she regarded her with contempt. It was even more grating that Colonello had befriended Nero as well – she didn't have someone to back her up and take her side (Colonello didn't do that out of friendship so much as a strong desire not to die from food poisoning at the age of fifteen).

It was unacceptable. Something had to be done.

Which was why Bianchi was currently standing in the spacious, modern kitchen of her large apartment, preparing. Her ingredients lay were neatly arranged on the metal countertop, her only companions in the war against her rivals. Little Miss Furui who lived next door and smelt of cheese had been nice enough to lend her some sugar – for some strange reason, the old lady loved Bianchi's cooking. No matter what Bianchi gave her, it did absolutely nothing to affect her.

Bianchi privately suspected that Miss Furui was an alien, but had never told anyone for fear of being thought insane.

Smiling to herself, she cracked an egg and added it to the bowl. It was a relief her father gave her such a large allowance, so that she never needed to worry about the price of ingredients. It almost made up for the fact that he had sent her to Japan three years ago and appointed a new heir to the family. Perhaps that was what her brother had felt, all those years ago, long before she'd even been born. _Well_, she thought savagely, _Japan was where I met Reborn, so who's laughing now, Father? _

She whipped the batter for her cake furiously and focused on her task. Tomorrow, she would sweetly present Luce Nero with this cake, claiming it was a peace offering. And Luce Nero, silly, trusting girl that she was, would eat the cake, and join the ranks of all who spoke in terrified whispers of the pink haired demon with cooking from hell.

And then Reborn would be hers again, as it was meant to be.

It always made Bianchi grin when she walked past a classmate she'd given food and watch the poor girl press herself into the wall and start making symbols with her fingers to ward off evil. Once, she'd smiled at the girl and said charmingly, "Your little finger should be higher up. Maybe that's why it's not working."

_Needs more sugar_, she thought, as she cooked. Revenge, after all, was sweet.

* * *

It wasn't so much that Luce didn't want to give Bianchi the benefit of the doubt. She genuinely believed that despite the pink-haired girl's declarations of their being rivals, and all her nasty glares, that Bianchi was really a nice person and wouldn't do anything _that_ harmful to her at (Luce was trusting, but she wasn't _that _trusting). Luce wanted to be Bianchi's friend, because a friend of Colonello and Reborn was a friend to her as well, and she was happy that the girl had unexpectedly offered to make peace.

It was more of the fact that the cake appeared to be _oozing_.

Bianchi smiled at her, trademark goggles holding back her long pink mane. Like Luce, she wore her school uniform properly, although Luce had always felt that Bianchi looked more like a high schooler than someone their age. Behind Bianchi, Colonello and Reborn were waving and motioning wildly, signaling her not to eat the cake. Even Fon was shaking his head nervously at the sight of the foul confectionary. Luce managed a weak smile.

"Um, Bianchi-chan, it's so s-sweet of you to offer me this cake it really wasn't necessary at all! It's just… It's t-too much for me to eat right now! Yes, so um… Maybe we could all share it?" Luce suggested, thinking desperately. All three boys gave her looks of complete horror – Colonello actually looked green. "I mean, um, thank you very much, I'll j-just… eat it when I get h-home," she managed, wondering if she could fling it into someone's trash on the walk back.

Bianchi nodded, looking pleased, and handed over the bright purple cake. Luce's palms were sweaty as she accepted it. With a yelp of alarm, the platter slipped out of her hands and smashed into the ground. She gasped at the mess of frosting and cream lying at her foot, horrified at her own clumsiness. So much for future mafia boss. She felt her shoes start to melt a little where the frosting touched them (were cakes _supposed_ to be corrosive?).

"Oh, I'm so s-sorry Bianchi-chan, I'm just so…_huh_?" Luce gaped as a large black crow crashed out of the sky next to the cake, choking on fumes. The boys stared, open-mouthed. Luce blinked. Bianchi might have been quietly cursing, but nobody was really paying attention. "Eh? What's in this cake?" Luce murmured to herself, glancing at the pink-haired girl. For a split second, Luce could have sworn she saw something like frustration on the other girl's face.

"Oh, how awful, somebody must have switched my cake with this poisoned copy! I had no idea!" Bianchi gasped theatrically, several large tears pooling in her large green eyes.

"Really? 'Cause I'm pretty sure that's your cook - " Bianchi clamped a hand over Colonello's mouth and looked at Luce sadly. Reborn kept glancing between Luce and Bianchi, frowning. Fon seemed to be checking the pockets of his uniform, on the off chance that it might have been him (Haruna-sensei refused to go anywhere near them after the little garlic incident).

Luce was confused. She knew she was good at reading people – she refused to believe it was anything more than that – but what she sensed in Bianchi confused her. She could _feel _dislike rippling off the other girl in waves, but she could also sense that Bianchi did not mean to really harm her. _I wish Ryohei were here, he'd be able to figure this out_, she thought. _Well, he'd probably just give me a Dying Will Pill and tell me to act more like a Mafia Boss._

She decided to believe that Bianchi was telling the truth. _Hope springs eternal, after all._ "Ah, it's fine Bianchi-chan, these things happen," she said brightly, clasping her hands tightly.

"Actually –"

"Shut it, Colonello," Bianchi snapped, holding up her bento box threateningly. The blond boy backed down, looking nauseous. Luce tilted her head, trying to figure out why Colonello was so easily cowed. Her thoughts were jumble as she and Bianchi hurriedly swept the remains of the cake away. Bianchi's explanation didn't make much sense, when she considered it. Unless she was being targeted by another assassin… No, that was ridiculous, she decided.

The tension in the air dissipated as they returned to their lunch. Colonello and Reborn started competing over something trivial, and all appeared to be forgotten. Luce said nothing as she watched the boys and their antics. It always made her smile, but today her trademark expression came less easily. She couldn't manage to shake the prickling sensation on the back of her neck, as though Bianchi were staring at her very, very intently.

_I'm sure it's nothing. Why would Bianchi want to hurt me?_

* * *

Luce opened the door to her bedroom to find Ryohei digging through Kangaryuu's pouch for something. In front of him lay several battered notebooks, snacks, and what appeared to be the entire contents of what one normally found in a boxing training area, minus the ring. She blinked, rubbed her eyes, and looked again. The mess was still there.

"Um, how does all of that," she asked, pointing to the mess on her floor, "Fit in there?" She indicated Kangaryuu's incredibly small pouch. Sometimes Luce wondered why she even bothered questioning it. It wasn't as though the Dying Will Pills made sense either. Speaking of which, she would need to find a way to contact Verde about anything he might have discovered. She hadn't heard from him since their picnic – which was probably his intention, not that it would slow her down.

Ryohei grinned, dragging back her attention. "It's an _extreme_ sub-space compartment!" he explained.

"Eh?"

"I don't know what it means either," Ryohei admitted, scratching his head, "But I haven't managed to find the bottom of it yet!"

Luce tilted her head, deciding it was just one of the many crazy things surrounding Ryohei. She changed the subject. It had weighed on her mind too long today, distracting her from classes and causing Moriyama-sensei to yell at her for not paying attention. "Ryohei, this is just hypothetical…but if someone was trying to kill you, what would you do?"

Instantly, fire lit in his eyes. "I would challenge them to a fight and defeat them _to the extreme_!" he declared, nearly knocking Luce over with the sheer amount of concentrated passion he was exuding. He frowned. "Why do you ask?"

"Oh, um, I was just…curious," she said, waving her hands defensively, "It was only a hypothetical question!" Ryohei looked at her suspiciously. "I swear!" she insisted, even as she silently scolded herself for lying to Ryohei. She hated lying to people who trusted her.

He nodded slowly, and then went back to his rummaging. Luce sighed and flopped down onto the bed, glad that Ryohei had believed her. On most days, she would have started on her homework right away, but she felt too anxious now. Maybe she ought to do some baking. Luce enjoyed baking, enjoyed shaping the dough and mixing the batter and creating something with her own two hands. Most of the time it came out wrong, or tasteless or awful, but sometimes they didn't turn out too bad at all, and it made her happy to know that even though they were so many things she couldn't do, there were some she could do alright.

Then she remembered the poisonous cake, and her stomach turned. Ryohei let out a whoop of joy, removing what appeared to be a large lava lamp. He triumphantly plugged it into the socket and settled down next to it with his notebook. Luce opened her mouth, judging the size of the lamp with her hands – taller than Ryohei. Then she measured Kangaryuu's pouch. She debated asking, then decided that her head already hurt enough. _Kangaroos with sub-space pockets. What's next, multiplying hedgehogs? _

She heard the distant sound of the doorbell ringing. Confused, she got up and headed downstairs. "Kaa-san, you're not home?" she called out, and received no answer. _Maybe she's out doing groceries. _

She opened the door to find a bored-looking pizza delivery boy waiting for her. He yawned and held out a large box. "Delivery for…" He checked. "Nero-san?"

She blinked. "Um, I-I didn't order anything."

He grunted, looking mildly irritated. "Well, this says you did. Are you gonna take it lady, or what?"

Not wanting to irk him further, Luce accepted the box. He turned to head back to his scooter. "Uh, don't I h-have to pay you?"

He looked at her strangely, yawning again. "You must have a selective memory. You paid for this pizza yesterday but said you wanted it delivered today. You threatened the manager and everything 'til he gave in. Least, that's what he told me."

Luce stared after him, holding the box. She was certain she hadn't ordered the pizza or threatened a manager. Unless she really did have a selective memory. But she'd probably remember having a selective memory, wouldn't she? Wait…

Distractedly, she opened the box to check what kind of pizza it was. Instantly, toxic green fumes drifted out from the pizza and began choking her. Gasping, she sank to the floor, clutching her throat. "Can't…breathe…Ryohei…" she gasped, seeing stars at the edges of her vision. _I don't want to die like this! _

Something that felt like cannon blast shoved the box out of her hands and onto the road in front of her house. Three crows dropped out of the sky around it. _Does Namimori have no other birds but crows? _Luce wondered distantly, as she blinked to see Ryohei in front of her, fist extended.

He turned and looked at her with worry. "Luce, I think someone's trying to kill you _to the extreme_!"

Luce ran one hand down her face and tried not to groan.

* * *

"What do I do? The pizza might not have been from Bianchi, but what if it was? And if it is her – which it might not be – why would she even be trying to kill me?" Luce paced back and forth in her bedroom, wringing her hands as Ryohei watched her. He opened his mouth. "No, I'm not challenging her to a fight," she snapped, cutting him off. He closed his mouth again.

Exhausted from all her worrying, she flopped down next to the bed. She tilted her head back to look at Ryohei, perched on the bed behind her. "What _can_ I do? Bianchi is Colonello-kun and Reborn's friend," she said softly, "But I can't just let myself get killed." Ryohei looked at her a long moment.

"Luce," he said solemnly, "Humans are creatures that will die one day." Luce stared at him, amazed by the eloquence of his words. Maybe he was possessed. _Now that's just mean, _she chided herself. _Ryohei is perfectly capable of being eloquent. Occasionally. Sometimes. Not very often. _

"Wow, Ryohei…that's really…enlightened," she said, shocked. It was so unlike him to say something like that. Then she frowned. "Wait, that's not helpful at all!"

Ryohei slammed his fists together, eyes bright. "Exactly! You can't just let someone kill you! You go down fighting _to the extreme_!"

Luce couldn't help smiling. _That_ was the home tutor she knew, the one that never backed down or gave in. Who was rubbing off on her, just a little bit. She frowned again. "But I _can't _fight Bianchi! Ryohei, that isn't helpful either!"

She buried her face in her hands as Ryohei insisted that his plan was _extremely _helpful. "Why is someone _always _trying to kill me?" she muttered.

* * *

Aria was chattering to her about something or another – she caught something about 'Gamma' and wondered why her sister had an interest in radiation of all things – but Luce was too distracted to really listen. In the end, she had decided with Ryohei that since they couldn't actually _prove _that Bianchi had sent the pizza, even if poisonous food was her specialty, they would have to wait and see if she tried anything. Luce prayed she didn't. She rather enjoyed being alive.

"Luce-nee, are you even listening to me?" Aria snapped, waving her hand in front of her sister's face. Luce started and forced a smile.

"Of course I am! I think having an interest in gamma radiation is a good thing!" she said brightly. Aria stared at her, putting her hands on her hips.

"Luce-nee, I was talking about my _classmate_. You know, the blond one that Uni used to have a crush on?" she said, her voice low and threatening. Luce nervously put up her hands and backed away.

"Oh. Of course I knew that, I was j-just testing you!"

"_Sure_, Luce-nee."

"Chaos, Luce." Luce nearly jumped out of her skin as Reborn came up behind her, trademark fedora on his head. It was almost as if he enjoyed sneaking around and scaring people (Luce was actually right about that). She straightened and smiled at him, glad to see him.

"Ah, good morning, Reborn!" she chirped, already feeling better. Reborn always managed to make her feel like things weren't so bad, that she wasn't out of her depth and failing miserably. He nodded, and the three began walking towards Namimori Middle. Luce almost felt like skipping.

"I heard that today we're making rice balls in Home Economics. I'm so excited!" she said, already feeling much better.

"I'm sure Haruna-sensei feels the same," Reborn said dryly, and she swatted him playfully. It was such a brazen thing for her to do, and before Ryohei she might never have done such a thing. But now it felt right.

"Eh, that only happened once! And it wasn't intentional!" Luce insisted, smiling lightly at his smirk. She knew he was only teasing.

"Well, Haruna-sensei doesn't think so. She went green when she found I was your sister," Aria responded, eyebrows raised. "My, my, first you beat up Mochida, then you poison a teacher, what's next, Luce-nee?" Luce went pink at the implication that she was gaining notoriety in school.

"Ah, well…"

They continued on, oblivious to a pink-haired presence behind them, glaring poisonous daggers.

* * *

Bianchi couldn't believe her eyes. She'd envisioned happily coming to school to discover, wonder of wonders, that her rival had fallen ill with food poisoning. Not being greeted with the sight of her and Reborn happily walking to school. _How dare she, _she thought viciously. How on Earth had Luce Nero managed to survive eating that pizza? She had made sure that the pizza was full to the bursting with Poison Cooking! That girl was a greater foe that she'd imagined.

_Or she didn't eat the pizza. That's possible too._

It always irked Bianchi that her sensible thoughts sounded an awful lot like Colonello, especially since he was probably the last person in the world who qualified as sensible. Sometimes she wondered why she and Reborn even went along with most of his antics. She was still picking charcoal out of her after 'The Salamander Incident', which Colonello insisted was not his doing, at all. Nobody really believed that.

She returned her thoughts to the present and the scene in front of her. Well, it seemed it was time she finished off Luce once and for all. Yes. _All those who bother someone's love life should die covered in poison_, she thought, and grinned maliciously.

"Oi, what's with that evil look, kora?" Bianchi groaned, turning around to see Colonello behind her, bag slung over his shoulder. He followed her gaze and frowned.

"Hey, lay off, Luce, okay? She's not doing anything," he said lowly, a muscle in his jaw twitching. Bianchi raised her eyebrows and gave him an innocent look.

"I'm not doing anything, Colonello," she responded, shouldering her bag and walking towards Namimori Middle. She had always disliked how Colonello could figure her out so easily, and called her out on it. He caught up with her.

"Please. Don't think I've forgotten how you _tried to murder me_ just because Reborn was hanging out with me more than you," he said, face going a little green at the thought. Bianchi smiled a bit at the memory. They'd only been in their first year of Middle School, and Bianchi had realized that she considered Reborn far, far more than a friend. It had made her inordinately jealous that Reborn's childhood friend from Italy had turned up in Japan, and the two were now spending all their time together, and leaving Bianchi behind.

_I was his first friend here! Stop taking him away from me! _She had thought with venom, and thus her first batch of Poison Cooking had really been put to the test.

"That's all in your head, Colonello," she said over her shoulder, "If I'd wanted you dead, you'd be six feet under by now!"

He snorted. "Right, because all of my food just _spontaneously _turned into your cooking." He walked beside her for a while, shaking his head. "You really think that Reborn's just going to be okay with you trying to kill Luce? Because if I remember right, he wasn't that happy about you trying to kill me."

Bianchi folded her arms and glared at him, even though she knew he was right. While Reborn never said anything about her giving Poison Cooking to schoolmates, he drew the line at giving it to people he considered friends. Reborn might not have been a saint, but he had standards. And she could sense his disappointment every time she broke one of those.

That was the main reason she'd stopped trying to kill Colonello. Reborn's disappointment had stopped her cold. He had ignored her. She couldn't live with that.

So she'd put aside her creations, although once or twice, she'd made a few half-hearted attempts just to remind Colonello that she wasn't pleased with his being there. But everything had worked out in the end, hadn't it? If anything, her attempts at killing Colonello had made their friendship stronger. Still…

_Well, it doesn't matter_, she insisted to herself, _Luce Nero needs to be gotten rid of. No matter what._

_People can die for love; that is my theory. So now, Luce Nero, for the sake of love…_

* * *

Luce smiled proudly at the rice balls she'd made. Some of them were shaped a bit oddly, and a few looked like they might fall apart at any moment, but some weren't all that bad, and that was enough. _Still average, after all. _

She glanced over Fon's well-shaped creations, and felt a twinge of envy. Guiltily, she dismissed it, and instead concentrated on who she wanted to give them to. There were too many for her to eat all of them. She wanted Colonello and Fon to taste her creations, but at the same time, well…she was half-hoping that Reborn might take one as well.

_Oh Luce, you're such a hopeless romantic,_ she thought. It sounded too much like those shojo manga that Uni always read and gushed over. If Aria were here, she'd probably be rolling her eyes.

She glanced around the kitchen to see Reborn and Colonello assembling their creations on large plates, ribbing each other over whose were better. Bianchi was standing next to them, holding her own tray. Luce waved at them to come over. Fon eyed Colonello's rice balls critically. "What?" the blond boy snapped.

"They seem to resemble lumpy snowmen," Fon responded, smiling in a way that Luce could almost call devious. _I'm so glad Fon-kun's really starting to loosen up and live a little, _she thought. Colonello bristled.

"These are works of art, kora!" he said, pointing at the tray.

"Ah, I see. It must be abstract art."

"I'll show you abstract art -" Luce grabbed one of Colonello's rice balls and shoved it into her mouth in an effort to stop the bickering. Instantly, she regretted it. She tried to smile at him, eyes watering at the taste.

"They're a bit…spicier than normal," she choked out. He grinned proudly, oblivious to her state. Fon bit his lip, nodding towards an empty bottle of chili sauce sitting on the countertop. Hurriedly, Luce ran to the sink and chugged down an entire jug of water just to get rid of the taste of burning in her mouth.

_Maybe that's why Bianchi and Colonello are friends – they're both dangerous cooks. _

When she turned back, most of her and Fon's rice balls were gone. Reborn lifted up his plate and offered them to her. "Would you like one?" he asked and she blushed despite herself. _He's just offering food, _she scolded herself. Her eyes drifted down to the poisonous looking rice balls in front of her and her heart stopped. Beside him, Bianchi smiled nastily at her. Her eyes widened.

_She must have switched hers with Reborn! _Luce realized with mounting horror. Reborn, misreading her expression, placed the plate back on the table and shrugged slightly.

"It's fine if you don't want to. Rice balls are not my forte," he said, although she sensed the barest hint of disappointment in his otherwise cool façade. Luce's heart sank into her shoes. She didn't want to disappoint someone who considered her a friend. It made her feel even worse that Reborn had criticized his own creations, since she knew that Reborn rarely admitted to being bad at something.

"No, no, it's not like that," she said desperately, trying to think of an excuse. _It's just that I don't want to die!_ No, she couldn't say that. That would just make everything worse. Colonello broke in.

"Well, if Luce doesn't want one, I'll take it. I'm starving," he said, reaching to grab one. Fon shook his head, bemused – he'd once remarked that Colonello's stomach was a black hole - , but he reached for one as well.

"It is only right that I sample everyone's creations," he said politely, as the two boys lifted the food to their mouths. Luce's heart stopped. Everything seemed to be going in slow motion, the food drawing closer and closer to their mouths. She couldn't let them eat it. Not Fon and Colonello, the first two friends she'd ever made. And in that moment, she moved.

Her hands shot upwards knocking the rice balls out of their hands. "If you eat it, you'll die!" she shrieked. Her friends stared at her, mouths hanging open. Reborn's perfectly composed façade broke a little as he stared at her in shock. Bianchi cursed quietly. Luce's face went red.

And then she heard a voice – it was actually impossible not to, since said voice was shouting at the top of its lungs and was about half a decibel short of deafening someone. But the point was that she heard a voice, and the voice was saying something important. "_Extremely _good job protecting your family! That's what makes a mafia boss!"

Luce was too astonished to comprehend what was happening as Ryohei catapulted through the window, sailed over everyone's heads in a way that would make a gymnast weep tears at his skill, landed on the table in front of her and tossed a little white pill into her mouth. Dimly she thought, _**Oh-no. **_

"Now show her what you're made of _to the extreme_!"

And then everything went just a little pear-shaped.

* * *

Bianchi was not expecting to see Luce Nero's clothes fly off and her forehead catch fire. It made absolutely no logical sense. It was just like the incident last month when Nero had defeated Mochida. And why was there a baby here? A baby just like… And then Nero straightened and declared something that ripped that thought away as swiftly as it had come. "EAT THE RICEBALLS WITH MY DYING WILL!"

She lunged forward, scooping up everything on the plate, and tossed them into her mouth, chewing quickly. It was actually rather disgusting, and Reborn was staring at her with the sort of expression one had when they'd just been hit over the head with a blunt object. Nero looked a little bit like a chipmunk. Well, no matter. She'd won, at last. It was over. Nobody could survive eating that much Poison Cooking.

And then Nero – if it even was her – swallowed, grinned and said, "DELICIOUS!"

Bianchi stared at her. "What? My Poison Cooking doesn't work on her?!" she burst out, staring at the person in front of her.

Reborn's eyes swiftly turned in her direction, hard as flints. The baby grinned proudly. "The Pill removes all your limiters, even on your stomach!"

Nero turned towards her remaining classmates, who were all staring with expressions that were somewhere between amusement and shock. With a loud yell, she grabbed another heaping of rice balls and shoved them into her mouth. "NOT ENOUGH!" she roared, and lunged for another plate.

Bianchi could only stand in the center of the kitchen as everyone tried to restrain Luce Nero from devouring every single rice ball in sight. The fire alarm started ringing. People were screaming. Luce was tearing through the room in search of food. She heard Haruna-sensei shrieking, "This is the last time I ever let you into my kitchen! I'll get you barred from here for- DON'T YOU DARE EAT THOSE RICE BALLS! THEY'RE FOR MY BOYFRIEND!"

And all Bianchi could say as the chaos raged around her was one simple, eloquent word. "Damn."

* * *

Luce came back to herself to find Haruna-sensei three seconds from choking the life out of her. Fon and Colonello ripped her off, both staring at her with shock. Behind them, the principal was encouraging Haruna-sensei to take a nice long vacation. Or see a therapist. Lots and lots of therapists.

"Who knew you had it in you?" Colonello stated, looking at her with newfound pride as he helped her to her feet. Fon gave her a genuine smile.

"It was quite impressive, Luce-san," he chipped in, handing Luce her clothes. Both were very pointedly staring everywhere but directly at her. Luce looked at them with bewilderment, trying to remember what had happened during the hazy moments when she was in Dying Will Mode. What had she done this time? And why was everyone staring at her with mingled terror and pride?

"I can't believe you'd tell people 'If anyone eats the rice balls Reborn gave me, I'll freaking kill you!', kora," Colonello marveled, slapping her on the back. Luce nearly fell over, and not just because he hit hard. How on Earth could people interpret her outburst that way? Hadn't anyone noticed the fact that the rice balls were Poison Cooking? And for that matter, why was nobody questioning the fact that a baby had just smashed through the window and given her a magic pill?

_The more I know people, the more I begin to believe that I am the only sane person on this planet. _

"But-but-but-" she stammered, face burning, as Ryohei gave her a thumbs up and congratulated her on her performance. Fon and Colonello were doing their best to shield her from multiple classmates trying to take a peek (more of beating them up, really). She glanced around wildly, trying to find Reborn and apologize, but he was nowhere to be found. Curiously, Bianchi was missing as well.

_She really did try to kill me, _she thought numbly, pulling on her clothes. Disappointment welled up inside her. _I guess hope doesn't spring eternal, after all._

* * *

Bianchi heard him come up behind her as she sat on the roof, legs to her chest. She wasn't surprised he had found her. Reborn was a genius, and loved to feign omniscience. She wished he hadn't. Reborn was going to _hate _her now. He hadn't been pleased when she'd tried to kill Colonello. She remembered the cold shoulder he'd given her, the quiet looks of disapproval, the curt responses. She remembered how he had turned to her at last, when she'd finally asked what she had done _wrong_, and he'd just looked at her said, "That's the worst part."

He wouldn't just take something like this sitting down. She hated Luce Nero in that moment. Truly, hated her. Yet, a small, tiny, acknowledged part of her couldn't help but be a little bit impressed by her as well. Who knew that a girl like Luce Nero would refuse to allow anyone to eat Reborn's rice balls except herself, and threaten bodily harm if they tried?

It almost sounded like something she would do.

"You shouldn't have done that," Reborn said at last. It was not anger that she heard in his voice. It was disappointment, and that was the worst of all. Bianchi looked out towards the sky, wondering what would happen now. If it had been any other schoolmate, she would have told Reborn that Luce had been taking him away, poor thing, and she'd rescued him. _I doubt he'd appreciate that, _she thought. Reborn continued on, not giving her a chance to reply. "I'm not going to suddenly forget you exist."

Bianchi bit her lip, and felt like punching something. "But I can't be sure," she said, because she knew deep in her heart, in her heart of hearts, that Reborn loved her, but he wasn't _in_ love with her, and never would be, and somebody he would find someone and that would be it forever, and Bianchi could not let that happen. To her love was worth killing for, worth dying for, worth more than any reward she could ever receive.

_I'm a hopeless romantic, only more twisted, I suppose. _

Reborn snorted. "I've known you for six years," he said, and sat down beside her. Bianchi almost scooted closer, then checked herself. "You remember how we first met?" he asked off-handedly.

"Before or after I gave you a bloody nose?" she said automatically, grinning despite herself. It was the first, and last, time she'd ever physically hurt Reborn. Colonello had laughed until he cried when he'd heard the story.

She'd been infuriated that day. Little nine-year-old Bianchi with ribbons in her hair and scabs on her knees had glared daggers at an arrogant little boy with spiky black hair and curly sideburns and an awful taste in hats (Reborn was, amazingly enough, not actually a hat person). The nerve of him, beating her at basketball, stealing the ball from right under her nose, when she was just inches away from scoring a goal. And he'd proceeded to move across the court with ease and score swiftly, smirking at her. "I don't associate with lower ranked people," he'd said, when she demanded a rematch.

Bianchi had not been known for her grudges at that time, but she _despised _losing. And as it turned out, so did Reborn.

When the dust had cleared, it'd taken four teachers to separate them and send them to the nurse's office, sporting numerous cuts, bruises, bumps and dirt smudges. Bianchi's perfect pink pigtails were a mess. Reborn's sweater that Shamal had not lovingly knitted, but claimed that he had, could never be worn again. The truly hideous hat had been destroyed. Bianchi's perfectly ironed uniform looked like it had been introduced to a rabid lion.

It was the most fun she'd ever had. To finally just act like a child, instead of a miniature version of her parents.

One of the teachers had clucked her tongue at the sight, shaking her head. "Just look at their behavior. I blame the parents," she'd said severely. Her colleague shrugged.

"What can you expect? They're not from Japan, after all," she'd responded, and little Bianchi had looked at Reborn and realized he was like her too, and that had made her happy. A familiar point in this alien land of people who bottled their feelings and did not express themselves. She'd found herself missing Italy and its people, who cried and laughed and wept and _felt_. And here was Reborn, a little slice of the country she had been dragged away from without her consent.

She saw he realized that too. And so they'd sat across from each other, grinning more than a little wildly. She'd told him her name, and he'd smirked at her.

"Bianchi?" he'd said, "You're crazy. Let's be friends."

She smiled fondly at the memory. He was the first friend she'd ever had. She had no idea what had gotten her to accept to such a request – the little brat had ruined her perfect ribbons! -, but she hadn't looked back since. Even thought what followed after had been more than a little insane (that was all Colonello's fault. _All of it_). Reborn continued watching the sky, his eyes shadowed.

"And after everything…" he said, "You still believe that I am just going to suddenly forget you exist and stop being your friend?"

Bianchi paused. She thought of everything they had been through – school, poisonous cooking, adventures, salamanders… He had never left. Though he had found new friend and others to associate with, he had always come back to her. _But I don't want to __**share. **__I don't want to have to lend you out to others, _she thought.

Maybe it was childish and immature, but Bianchi was possessive. There were so few things she could call her own, and she hoarded them, locked them away like a glanced at Reborn's profile out of the corner of her eye. Reborn, who forgave her, tolerated her, cared for, never asked for anything from her. Reborn, who always came back to her.

It was hardly fair to Reborn, wasn't it?

Because her happiness was not worth Reborn's. And Bianchi had, and always would be, a hopeless romantic. That wasn't always a bad thing.

She clicked her tongue irritably, realizing what he expected her to say. Stupid genii. "Oh, alright, alright," she snapped, "I'll stop trying to kill her." Reborn smiled with something like understanding, and Bianchi's heart melted a little. So she would keep Luce Nero alive, for now, because it would make Reborn happy. And despite all her thoughts on danger and thrills, she loved him most when he was happy.

_But maybe I'll just slip in a few mildly poisonous foods, just to remind her of who she's dealing with_, she thought, because it wouldn't be like her not to. She wouldn't want Luce Nero to think that she could just get away with being Reborn's friend. And really, Bianchi would like to know what it that everyone seems to see in Luce Nero that makes her so worthwhile. _Someday_, she thought. For now, she'd just have to remember to bake a nice little batch of mildly-poisonous cookies.

Reborn sent her a bemused look, reading her with ease. "You never change," he said simply, and it felt like a compliment. He paused, smirking slightly. "I suppose asking you to be nicer to her is too much to ask?"

"Don't push your luck," Bianchi responded with a grin, and everything was as it should be. "Do you think we should go back to class?"

Reborn yawned as an answer. She smiled, and they sat there for a long while, watching the sky, as friends.

* * *

There were a lot of things Ryohei wasn't quite right about, but he was very right on one count: the more a person didn't want to see you, the more they would end up bumping into you (it was the universe's idea of a good joke). So Luce wasn't really all that surprised when she found herself walking out the school gates just a little bit behind Bianchi.

Ordinarily, she would have given the pink-haired girl a wide berth. Bianchi had tried to kill her. But she couldn't anymore. She wanted the feuding to stop, no matter how impossible that seemed. Because Luce was an optimistic, and if there was one thing that Ryohei had taught her, it was that you didn't give up. Ever. Even when the stars told you to.

_I think we could be friends, if we tried. I really think we could. _

So she ran forward, tapped Bianchi on the shoulder and smiled. Bianchi's eyebrows drew together. "What do you want?" she said warily. Luce winced slightly, but soldiered on. _Go down fighting, like Ryohei said_, she thought determinedly.

"Where are you going, Bianchi-chan?" she asked, sliding into step beside her.

"Home," the pink-haired girl said curtly, pulling on her goggles. It was an easy message to understand: _I don't want to talk to you. _Luce ignored it. Shooting her an irritated glanced, Bianchi increased her pace, and Luce copied her, still smiling. Glaring, Bianchi walked even faster, and Luce had to jog to keep up. And so it went on; Bianchi walking faster and faster and Luce doggedly continuing to stick by her side. Ryohei would have been proud.

"I hope you're not getting tired, Nero," Bianchi snapped, although the effect was marred by the fact that she was panting lightly.

"Hardly!" Luce replied, grinning despite the pain in her side. She found she was having fun. It was like being with her sisters. "I could do this all day!"

"I'm not planning on losing to you!" Bianchi retorted, increasing her pace even more. Luce was practically running along beside her.

"Me…either!" Luce gasped, as they raced, neck and neck, rushing towards the zebra crossing up ahead. And then suddenly, just as Luce had taken the lead and turned to grin at the other girl, a hand clamped around the back of her shirt and yanked her onto the pavement. A car passed inches from her face. Her life flashed before her eyes – it was rather depressing, actually. Sitting there on the pavement, her bag on her lap, chest heaving from the exertion, Luce blinked up at Bianchi, who was staring at her crossly.

"Are you trying to get killed?" she demanded, hands on her hips. "Watch where you're going!"

And for a split second, Luce felt something different in the place inside her chest. A trickle of fear radiated from the other girl. Luce didn't understand where it came from, or why, but she knew it was real. "It's a good thing you were watching my back!" she said brightly, and gave Bianchi a genuine smile. "Thank you."

Her friend (because you couldn't _not _be friends with someone who had saved your life) merely grunted and gestured at Luce to get up. This time, they walked at the same pace. Bianchi had not invited her to do so, but she didn't protest this time, and Luce took it as a sign.

Bianchi said nothing as Luce walked next to her, so she did her best to fill the silence. She rambled on – about school, about her sisters, about the fact that toast always landed butter side down but cats landed on their feet so what would happen if you tied a piece of toast butter side up to cat, and haven't you ever thought about testing that? And occasionally Bianchi would respond, and even give a little bark of laughter, and Luce learnt that Bianchi wasn't very good at school, that she had a much older brother, and that she'd always wanted to try that, but her brother refused to lend her his cat.

And suddenly the gaps between the two of them didn't seem quite so wide anymore, but things that could be bridged and filled. Neither mentioned Reborn. There wasn't any need or reason to.

Luce wasn't sure why, but she felt like things would be alright now.

"Ah, I was w-wondering, Bianchi-chan, if one day you'd like to b-bake with me?" Luce asked suddenly, barreling on before the other girl could get a word in, "B-because you really seem to like baking, and I like b-baking too, so maybe we should try to make something t-together?"

Sometimes Luce thought they might have more in common than they believed. Well actually they had a lot that wasn't in common, but there was enough that they did. And even though she was just a little bit afraid of what exactly they might create – horrifying giant monsters made of cake attacking Tokyo crossed her mind – she was sure that it couldn't be all that bad.

She was sure Ryohei probably had some precaution for cake monsters written in his notebook, anyways.

Bianchi gave her a long, searching look. "You want to bake with _me_?" she asked at last, folding her arms. Luce nodded, trying to convey every bit of sincerity inside her body. She could understand Bianchi's suspicion, even though it felt a little hurtful. The other girl opened her mouth. Then she paused, as though thinking. "If you can keep up with me, then…alright," she said grudgingly, and Luce beamed. She didn't know why Bianchi had agreed, but she knew at that moment that Bianchi wasn't going to hurt her.

She felt a lot of different things at once, but this time, she decided that she wasn't going to try and analyze them. She'd take things as they came.

"That's wonderful, Bianchi-chan! Come on!" she burst out, grabbing Bianchi's hand and dragging her along another street. She knew she wouldn't be able to work up the nerve any other time. Her confidence came and went, so she had to seize things quickly.

"I didn't mean _now_!"

"Ryohei always tells me that there's no time like the present!" Bianchi huffed, but out of the corner of her eye, Luce caught a ghost of a smile on her lips. And she laughed, and kept right on dragging her, underneath the bright blue sky dotted with clouds. _Hope springs eternal_, she thought.

It was a start.

* * *

**note6: **And then Luce and Bianchi went on to a bake a giant cake monster (like the giant marshmallow monster in Ghostbusters) and everything went **very** pear shaped. But that is a story for another day.**  
note7: **On a slightly more serious note, I'd like to know if everyone is comfortable with the idea of Luce using the same fighting style as Tsuna, gloves and all, or if they'd like something else. I've got some ideas of my own, but I'm game to hear from everyone. So, suggest away - crossbows, swords, giant forks, anything.**  
note8: **And please tell me how you feel about this story - what you like, what you hate, what makes you want to hunt me down and roast me over a slow fire, etc, so I can improve things. **  
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